The Moab Diary: Going back is yet another battle

- "Utah": Hey dude bra, I'm in Vegas and heading to the Creek soon. Give me a call and we'll meet up to do something gnar in the desert.After listening to the message I knew I'd go back. How could I resist? The last time was a blast, the weather was prime and I hadn't climbed with "Utah" since we worked together just south of Poke 'O Moonshine in the 'Daks. There was just one small problem, I

The Moab Diary: The final "push"

"Jello's" comments in Italics - which happens to be the bulk of this postI didn't want to wake up. It was our last day and I was pretty tired. Why should I get up? Maybe I'll just lie here forever, in my desert grave. A few minutes later and I gave up. I had to piss anyway. I ambled over to the designated urinal and watered the lawn. I looked around. The dihedral above the campground dominated my

The Moab Diary: Getting there is half the adventure (part three)

Click her for Part One and Part Two"Jello's" Comments in italics"Jello" lives no more than two hours away from Denver International Airport (DIA). In fact, on a good day, it only takes him 90 minutes. Thursday was not a good day.A lot was on my mind while I drove through the snow towards DIA. Was my aid gear from Fish, the gear I desperately needed for this trip, going to get to my house in time?

The Moab Diary: Getting there is half the adventure (part two)

Click here for Part OneLate January and early February brought weather that would have made the Iceman do a jig. Unfortunately, not everyone is as graceful on a sheet of ice and he is. I grew up in Maine and have learned how to walk on ice on flat, hilly, and uneven surfaces. But sometimes you walk on ice, and sometimes it - SLIP! THUD! CRACK! OWWWW!!!I sat on the sloping entrance to the driveway

The Moab Diary: Getting there is half the adventure (part one)

I must be ill. Sleep has been hard to come by the past few months, and I feel it in my soul every time I wake up. My diet is likely the best it has ever been, and yet my doctor told me a couple of months ago that my blood pressure was higher than normal. This is the first time that's ever happened to me. Why?My plan was the same as it had been the past few winters: to take no time off during my

Stark Yosemite: My Initial Thoughts

Note: "Orangekayak" is now named "PBR"An early morning flight from Boston touched "Ratherbe" and I down in Oakland an hour ahead of "PBR"'s flight from Dallas. We were stuffed in the car and on our way by early afternoon with the hopes of getting at least a toprope in before the sun set that evening. But the road to Yosemite is slower than expected, and we were too tired to do much of anything

Red Rocks - Thursday Touchdown in the Land of Has-beens

Having not flown a great distance in quite a while, it dawned on me about four hours into my flight from Boston to Las Vegas that airlines don't feed their customers anymore. I was a bit miffed that I was surviving on a single croissant from earlier that morning, two very small cookies and several glasses of water without ice. Ordinarily, I wouldn't mind not having the ice in my cup. Besides

Gearing Up

I haven't written in a while because I've been stuck indoors the past few weeks. This has nothing to do with weather and more to do with my lack of ability to manage my time and partners well. I'm not sure if this has become a burden or not: I haven't climbed outside in a while so I've lost my feel for real rock; or I'm getting stronger at the gym thanks to a new training method that I described

Adirondacks - Fall Trip

So I was supposed to go to Cannon this weekend, but "Jello" has car problems (bad alignment = blown tire on the way to Philly from Cathedral - bummer) and thought he needed more time to get his car fixed. He felt it was best if I drove up to the 'Dacks and hit Cannon next weekend instead, after his car got fixed. I'm OK with that, but I had tentative plans of going to the 'Dacks with other people

Adirondacks - Friday: The Drive Up

Wow. My first climbing trip in a few years. The last time I went was maybe in 2002 when I went with the now defunct Weclimbs climbing group to the Gunks (as an aside - the MassClimbers group has gobbled up two entire climbing groups: Weclimbs and the MetroRock Google group. The takeovers havent been entirely successful, as only a handful of of people from each group

Adirondacks Prelude

Just got back from a three-day weekend in the 'Dacks. It was my first time there, and I have a lot to tell. But I am warning you, I've got board meetings Tuesday and Thursday and I'm climbing Wednesday, so it may be a few days before I get anything posted. When I d0 post, however, I will have one post for each day, including the drive up. One thing to consider too, my camera broke (a crappy one,

Off To The 'Dacks

It's going to be a long, hot drive today. We're looking at record temps in the 90s. I'm not sure what the temps are going to be like in Up-state NY, but I hope it stays nice throughout the weekend.I'm hearing rain on Sunday, however - thunderstorms to boot. But at least I was able to get in touch with "Jello". He lives in Ray Brook, about an hour north of North Hudson where the others are camping

Comps, Climbing and the Adirondacks

Some weekends are such a blur of activity that one never really understands that activities were partaken in until well after the fact. This weekend was one of those weekends.Saturday - Got up early and headed down to New Bedford with "Cody" to judge at the Regional Comps held at Carabiners Gym. It was an easy ride down and I was quite surprised at the gym itself: very tall walls with not a space

Santa Fe

I made it in to Santa Fe alive, although barely. The flight from Denver into Santa Fe was on a two-prop plane that couldn't resist its blaring alarms every time we hit a patch of turbulence, and we hit those a lot. Anyway, I was in Santa Fe for a health care conference and was hoping to get a few hours of climbing in before coming home. I tried, I honestly did, but Santa Fe is an odd town that