Climbing and more Climbing

In the last month we've been getting out to Socorro a fair bit. Linda started working on a really good route there called Bat out of Hell that is quite sandbagged at 5.11d. With all the trips out there I found myself a little project in a new route to the right of the Demon. It even fit in with where I was in training, an easy start up to a hard boulder problem with holds that are all decent size but oriented the wrong way or far apart and topped with a romp to the finish.

It took me 2 sessions on TR, though the first was on self belay, to figure out how to do the boulder problem. Then on a third day I went back, bolted and climbed the route in a couple of tries, I decided to name it Devil's Plaything. Good thing too because it is starting to get too hot out there. We made one more trip out to Major Wall and Linda wrapped up Bat out of Hell, here is Linda finishing out here successful ascent.

At some point in this whole time Mark (aka: Monomaniac) and Kate came out and I headed to the Enchanted Tower for a day with them and their 1 year old. Mark and I got on Child of Light which has really cool movement but exploits all my weaknesses as a climber (shallow pockets and high overhead shoulder moves). While Kate got to run several climbs and get used to climbing outside more. More about it HERE in their blog. 

We managed to get in a trip to Hueco this past weekend. We had made reservations for volunteer tours only to find out that most of the guides left at the end of the week and no volunteer tours were going out leaving us waiting at the gate to get in. We got lucky the first day and some friend that were in line ahead of us knew a guide that was already in the park and was able to come out and get us on his tour. On the second day we checked to see if there was a guide for the tour we had signed up for then headed to the Rock Ranch to set up a commercial tour which is expensive ($20 per person vs. $4). We managed to get on one of their tours and it happened that another group from Albuquerque was with us. Here is a shot of Dylan doing some "V-5" bouldering, as one person on the tour described this wall.

 And Richard, from ABQ bearing down on the start of D.I.G. which is a fun but painful problem that I flashed years ago and Richard flashed on this day. I highly recommend taping your tips if you get on this problem.

Anyway, dealing with Hueco as always turned into a big hassle. 

On the other hand Today I made it back out to Socorro with Dylan and a friend, Karl to put up another new route. Yes, it is now too hot to climb, at least anything hard in the sun there, but this was an easier and friendlier route than the last. The end result is HERE I have not decided on a name yet or know if there was a previous one for the line, but it is another nice option to warm up on for future visits. 

Last Weekend of the first month of 2010

Friday I took Dylan up to the Capulin snow play area, just above the bottom of the ski area in the sandias. He did not really seem to like sledding but was excited about throwing snowballs and making snow angels.

On Saturday we all headed out to Socorro with a bunch of folks to do some climbing. I took a bunch of photos of Matt L on Sinister Dane and Benny on Full Penetration.

Here is Matt

and here is Benny,

Dylan was a really good boy all day without a nap and entertained himself really well at the cliff by throwing rocks and digging in the dirt. OH and making dirt "sand" angels, need less to say he got filthy.

On Sunday I headed out for a 100km ride. It was really cold and did not seem to warm up making me feel stiff the whole time. Add to that the perpetual 2-3 mph headwind for the whole ride and it was a frustrating experience.

New Year, new post

Happy New Years...a little late.
Here is a video of Dylan at home and his reaction to hearing the garage door open.

Now here are some shots of Dylan for your viewing pleasure.

Chasing ducks at the ZOO,

Hanging out with Komo, Chris' dog, in the bushes at Socorro,Doing some spelunking at Three Gun Springs,Investigating a small bush at the Playground, one of the cliffs at White Rock, outside of Los Alamos of National Lab and Nuke fame,

and playing with some rocks at the base of the wall, nice cliff with lots of flat space and trees near the wall. Many smaller rocks for Dylan to play with and on and no big drop offs untill you wander a couple hundred feet from the wall and there is the 1000+ foot drop down into the Rio Grande Gorge.

End of March weekend and walking

So on the bike front, turns out the frame is cracked and needs to be replaced. I'm working on that. But Dad is OK so that is good.

The weekend was good. I worked a bunch on nights last week to help get ready for the competiton that was at the gym. On Saturday morning I went for a ride with Chris and Joanna around their house. In the afternoon Linda competed in the competition and Lance said she climbed really well except for the grabbing of quickdraws when she got nervous.

On Sunday Chris and I made it back out to Socorro with Jesse so we could finish up the project on North Wall. After a quick warm up on the Bankruptsy Wall which was pretty bad we headed over to North Wall. The wal was surprisingly calm considering how windy it was in the canyon. I headed up with the stick clip to hang the draws and move the 7th bolt while also brushing the holds. Chris then gave it a run and did it with hangs on the 5th and 6th bolts. Then it was my turn and I managed to pull through for the send on what was my 3rd try, 2 from the previous day. Chris took a few more go's to clip the chains but managed to do the route later in the afternoon.

While we were out climbing Linda was home with Dylan. So they went to the park both before and after his nap. There was a slight accident, Dylan really enjoys the slide and Linda was encouraging him to go down sitting up, which he has done before but always with someone catching him at the bottom. Well Linda did not catch him on this occasion and he planted. Just a little something to supplement his tough guy image.

But he is still perfectly happy and enjoys carrying stuff around in his Zoo Happy Meal pail that Popo and Yeah-Yeah got for him when they were in town.

On another note, I keep telling Dylan that he is a little chunker or that he got an extra serving of chubbies. Linda thinks this is going to make him self-concious which I think is rediculous.
.....On the other hand, maybe she is right, he does spend a fair bit of time on the scale.

Here is a little video of how the walking is going.

Pretty good for only a few weeks and he really has not wrecked hard yet, though I'm sure that is coming.

Anyway, we are off to see Linda's family this weekend in Austin then next weekend we're headed to Hueco with a bunch of folks so we have a pretty full schedule.

Weekend report 09-03-16

On Friday since the weather was bad Chris, Curran, Dylan and I headed over to John and Carolyn's house to climb on their wall. Carolyn has a really sweet personal training studio with a climbing wall so we spent about 2 hours having a good session. Dylan played with all the personal training equipment and John's dog, Soulame (sp?).

Here is a shot that Carolyn took with her phone of Dylan and Soulame playing with extra holds that are not on the wall yet.

Next is another phone shot of Dylan just hanging around, though after a couple times of hanging on till he lets go he realizes that falling is more fun and he just lets go right away. You can also see their wall, nice bulge out the center and curving slightly overhung walls on either side.

On Saturday Linda finally started to ride some longer distances, though only 35 miles this time. She commutes to work on her bike once or twice a week 15 miles each way, but if she wants to have fun on the Triple By-Pass in CO this July she needs to get some longer rides in. Otherwise 120 miles and 3 mountain passes is just not going to be enjoyable no matter how nice the weather and scenery.

Next up, they don't make stuff like they used to. Dylan sporting a 30 year old onesie, those of you who know how old I am , know what that means.

On Sunday I headed out to Socorro with Chris. We started at Spook Canyon where after warming up Chris dogged up Ride the Lightning 5.13- to hang draws and figure things out for me. Thanks to his work, he had already done the route several years ago, I was able to climb it on my first go. Then we headed over to North Wall which was pretty cold, but that was a good thing. We got on a route that Chris bolted about 7 years ago and has not been climbed yet. We both made good progress in 2 attempts each. I managed it with one fall and Chris with just a couple, so I'm optimistic that it will go down next time out.