Yank-N-Yard 2012 Video

Here is a nice video of the 2012 Yank-N-Yard that Andy Burr put together. Prepping the gym, setting and forerunning the problems consumed a week of my life. All in all, it was a good time.

Yank-N-Yard 2012

Thoughts and Route Setting video

As many of you know I've driven a Tacoma for a long time, no longer. First it was a 1999 extended cab with a raised camper shell and a deck built in the back. After Dylan was born we needed to upgrade to 4 doors so I sold the '99 with 230,000 miles on it and got a 2009 4 door Tacoma to replace it, same style camera shell and the deck was rejigged to work in the larger bed. Everything was great until our house got broken into at the beginning of February and among the things that were taken was an extra key chain (it happened to be in a bag that was stolen). I looked into re-keying the truck and shell, it was going to cost close to $1000, so I checked with a Toyota dealership and I was able to trade my 2.5 year old Tacoma with over 40,000 miles on it for a brand new Prius and a check for $100. More thought on the change in another post.

That story and the new vehicle makes me more aware of other high milage/hybrid vehicles. Everyone is trying to get in on the HYBRID game. Listed at 20/23 mpg, and only $50,000 naturally it was in front of Whole Foods.

 Dylan getting his "team" picture taken, they don't actually play games yet at this age, just practice and drills.

 Dylan looking at fish in a circular tank that he was calling their elevator.

A little Route Setting 101, probably should be filled under, don't do it this way. Though we all have at one point or another. Impact drivers and ladders are much better, not sure why Anna was not using a ladder, we have about 10 of the short A frame ones. 

SnowDown at the Rock Lounge

Sometime near the end of last year I got a call from a old college friend, Chris Barlow. I had set the a couple of of the Colorado College competitions several years back, he won the first one and worked with me on the second. He is now living in Durango, CO working at a boarding school there and doing some route setting at the local gym, The Rock Lounge. They were going to have a competition at the beginning of February for an annual Durango event known as the Snowdown (basically when everyone is sick of the snow) and was wondering if I could help set the event. Well I'm not one to turn down an opportunity for work, visiting old friends and possibly snowboarding so I agreed.

The gym is quite nice for how small a community it serves. You enter on the middle floor of 3 and overlook the downstairs area which is for routes. Here are some people during the competition.

 The left wall is pretty steep in the upper half and reasonably tall, maybe 30 feet. Interestingly you can see windows in the wall that you can still bolt holds to, there are more like this half way up the lead wall on the left as well.

Upstairs is a very steep cave which is nice to set in since you never need a ladder. The roof is a little on the low side though I never felt like I really had to suck my feet up to avoid them hitting the ground when I swung. So while I'm not a big fan of horizontal climbing it is a good use of the space for them and about as good as it gets for setting.

 On the main floor there is what amounts to a very short lead wall or very tall bouldering wall. Since this was a bouldering competition we obviously used the wall to set problems. Here are a couple of guys climbing for the peanut gallery.

All in all, I think the competition was a success, they had about 60 competitors, which for such a small facility seemed like a lot. People seemed to be having a good time when I left about half way through the event to make the drive back to Albuquerque. 

I had a good time setting there and working with their group of setters, and hope to be back soon.

On another note, I did get in a day on the slopes at Durango Mountain Resort (Purgatory). A family that parked next to me in the lot was nice enough to get me a discount with their season pass, friends of pass holders got a discounted rate, Thanks Adam.