Climbed the Wobbly Dihedral

I got my redpoint on the Wobbly Dihedral. The climb went smooth, though after the friction part I took a second to shake some blood back in my feet.

I ended up placing 7 pieces on the line and running out the last 15 section of "slab". This is for sure going on my repeat list and for those that haven't climbed it a Devil's Lake must do! (Running out the top section)

I did a few other lines, Curving Crack, which I plan to redo to climb it cleaner, and a fun line (I thought it was fun anyway) a 40 foot tall, 8-9 feet deep chimney, called PHTOOY! It was a fun and really ugly line. You had to climb to the back of it to place a piece, then back to the front of the chimney to move up. Repeat that a couple times. I ended up having to runout the last 15 feet or so because I didn't have an easy way of getting back to the back of the crack. Also ended up in an awkward position throwing a heal hook around the outside of the chimney, above my head for balance. That was different.

This years goals...

The last few months I have been hella busy with home, work and climbing, my apologizes to all for not posting. Here's a recap: I took a couple trips down south to the Red River Gorge and Southern Illinois to do some climbing. Had fun, got in a few good leads including my redpoint of "Puppet Master" a 9+ that defeated me the year before. The climb starts with a few hard and very committing moves. You are 15 feet off the ground before you can get in your first good piece. Needless to say this could mean broken ankles if you are not careful. (I opted to have a crash pad just in case)

There have been a number of trips to Devil's lake as well. Weather has been decent for them, but sometimes we had snow (in april) though it didn't last very long. I took a shot at the "Wobbly Dihedral" a 9 (some would argue 9+) at Devil's Lake. For those of you that have never climbed at Devil's Lake, the grades are way off from most of the rest of the country, most argue "Very f-ing sandbagged". (So a 5.9 here would be a 5.10a/b/c/d other places, yes grades are all subjective, but just saying) This started one of two of my years goals. Climbing at my limit on gear (trad), this means falls. I trust my gear and I am not worried. On the Wobbly Dihedral I took to falls before passing the "friction only" section of the climb. Once past that, the crack got wet and very slick due to the green stuff that was growing in it. (You can see in the top part of the picture to the left) After trying to climbing past this a couple more times, I bailed off the climb. I'll be back and that rock ain't going anywhere.

The second of my goals is to break in to Alpine climbing. This means heavy training. Two weeks ago I started, I added squats, usually about 50 - 75 a session and double the amount of "step ups" as well. Heavy cardio is on the menu as well. Living in the flat low lands will make training for Alpine very challenging. I have using a modified version of what Mark Twight talks about in "Extreme Alpinism: Climbing Light Fast & High". (For those of you that don't know Mark Twight, he is the founder of Gym Jones. ) As well as input from some climbing veterans that I climb with.
Fun nights at the climbing gym have been replaced with laps with a summit pack loaded with about 15 lbs of "gear" and now boots instead of climbing shoes. As it was recently put to me:

"The goal in climbing is to avoid failure; the goal in training is to pursue failure."

Climb on.

Stuffs up and coming

Still getting over being sick and somehow hurting my ankle. Last weekend I headed to Adventure rock with Brian, Diane and Matt. Good time climbing, I FINALLY stuck a boulder problem I have been working on... wait... did I just get excited about an indoor boulder problem? WTF?

Anywho...

March will be busy. Traveling for work and Kristen Spring break. Next weekend i'm heading to the Red River George to climb and have some of that yummy Miguels pizza. The following week i'll be down in Albion and Climbing at Drapers Bluff with some folks.
Two great (Midwestern) climbing crags in 2 weeks! So lucky :)

My Effing ankle needs to fully heal! BAH!

For Jessa:

Ya... it's a been a while. Been busy, basically run, climb repeat. (Throw work in there as well). Down to 212.5 lbs today!

But besides that.... Been sick. Last Friday, I had a fever of 101.9 F. The works, hacking up green shit, joint paint, etc I'm still not fully recovered. To add insult to injury I twisted my ankle last night pretty bad...

So now, my focus is recovery, getting back up to 100% before March. I have two trips planned, one to the Red River Gorge and the other to Southern Illinois.

I'll post more when I'm finally off my meds.

I promise Jessa ;)

End of the plateau...

Many a hands began to scan around for the next plateau
Some say it was Greenland, and some say Mexico
Others decided it was nowhere except for where they stood
But those were all just guesses, wouldn't help you if they could...

Greenland and Mexico sound like lovely places to go, Greenland for climbing and Mexico for climbing and relaxing... however, not what i'm trying to get across. I have be stuck on a plateau for close to 4 months, finally... got below 215 lbs. a great numbers of factors, played in to this. Running around 20-25K a week, lifting 2-3 nights a week and climbing 2-3 days a week.

Most recently I started to take a page from Mark Twight books and a few other folks (friends/partners) on training, which I believe was the "last proverbial straw". Basically... insanity is the key I believe. Take a workout and think... ok... what can I do to make people look at me with a "What the fuck" face. works... seriously...

Weekend: Kicking it up a notch.

Saturday around 7:00 AM with the temperature around -5F (according to the digital readout in my Jeep) and a reported wind chill of -22F, Brian and I went running. The first 5K or so was cold, the numbing kinda cold, the last part of the run. The total run was about 10K, with some laps up and down the sled hill. The amusing part was the frost on me. From the sweet going though the gloves and dry shirt I looked like a snow cone.
After the run I indulged in some yummy blueberry pancakes and spent some time around the house with Kris and the pups followed by an evening of curry... mmm...curry.
Sunday AM was at the climbing gym where I put 20lbs in my summit pack and climbed and traversed. Climbing with 20lbs on your back is something else... something to work on.

Been a while...

Sorry folks it's been a while since I last posted, I have been busy training. Lately it's been how "insane" can I go. 10 - 15K runs though ice and snow sometimes reaching 1-2' drifts, laps up and down snow covered sled hills (usually after or during a 10K) and 5k runs broken with a hour of weights have been the norm. Get pieces of motivation , inspiration and fucking determination from readings and friends have occupied my time. This last weekend 5 miles at an 8:20 pace seemed like nothing. However that was followed by a trip to the climbing gym where I continued the S&M that has become my weekly training. It looks like it's going to get harder and harder. Adding weights while I run and do the incline and running on shitty and shitty ground (to help build core strength) have been a blast. Climbing goals have helped fuel this level of training as well as just self determination to "Party on".

I should add that the Rock & Ice Bloggers brawl ended with me in 6th place, not bad if I do say so myself. Thanks to those that voted!