rocks are the skin of the earth: May 2007

31.5.07

ohhh the good ol' times

Well... we officially left Yosemite today. We woke up, felt dirty, hot, and exhausted and packed up the car and left. The valley has become filled with tourists who shop, create horrendous long lines, drive, hike, take pictures of fat squirrels, and drive some more..oh and they are always eating. Needless to say the temps were getting higher, the tourists and mosquitoes thicker, and Midnight Lightning even shmarmy-er.

Lately, instead of throwing shoes at it, I am really loving the problem. It is super fun now that I have starting sticking the lightning bolt hold for more than a millisecond. No, I haven't officially stuck the move but I am sooo damn close. This has left me quite satisfied to come back in cooler conditions and hopefully make more progress.

I participated in a push-up contest the other night, and I could barely drive my car today. I can barely do 5 push-ups sober, but 45 in a span of ten minutes is ridiculous for me. It didn't affect my climbing though. I have just been messing around on fun stuff for the rest of my trip and doing a lot of drinking of good overpriced beer and mind erasers.

We set up a slackline down by the Merced and watched Valley locals do crazy things that you would never think could be done on a slackline. We also got ourselves lost on night walks aided by our "borrowed" solar light from someone's campsite.

On our way out of the park we stopped at all of the tourist spots for photos. Kris got mad that my clothes bag wouldn't close so she just pulled everything out. Fantastic.

26.5.07

f'ing yosemite

We are once again chillin' in the Ahwahnee spending $2,000 on one beer, or seven to be exact. We come here to enjoy the nice couches, the ambiance, and the non-dirt flooring. Blending in isn't the easiest when you aren't wearing nice shoes and you smell funny because showering is too much effort, oh, and you have toe flappers that are wrapped up to resemble a delectable pig-in-a-blanket. The photo above is Ivo cleaning Midnight Lightning with my water bottle and 4 crash pads stacked. Oh it was hilarious.

While not on midnight lightning, we've been beaching it. Yoga is fabulous and relaxing. Today I (Kris) did yoga on a ponderosa pine that has fallen in the past three years. It was crunchy but satisfying.

I (Kelly) had a fantastic day bouldering not on Midnight Lightning. I poked Kris at 4:38 a.m. this morning all psyched to get on the problem in good temps. I ended up getting pissed and not even trying because I didn't have enough pads, which resulted in me throwing my shoes at the boulder. I am still pissed. It's either too hot, not enough pads, or I am just scared to land wrong. I love making excuses...basically I am getting spanked. After, we went to lower Yosemite Falls at 6 a.m. where there were zero tourists, then we went back to bed.

Later I went on a Curry Village bouldering circuit and climbed some sweet boulders. This problem that I tried my first summer in Yosemite called Kevin's Traverse, V3, was my very first project. I finished it off today in one fell swoop. Then I went over to a problem called Root Canal, and did it in 4 tries. It felt good to be on top of a boulder. I love climbing...I am so obsessed it is ridiculous.

After Root Canal I went up to Circuit Breaker, 5.11b, and did two laps on it. What an amazing finger crack! I haven't climbed a crack in three years and wow that is a splitter crack with perfect finger jams. I got the hell out of there before some rocks landed on my head, as it is in a massive rock slide zone. I might just give up on Midnight Lightning until I can come back in better temps. I don't know yet.

23.5.07

Yosemite

It hurts to move.

Kris and I drove an assload and ended up in Yosemite valley late Sunday night. With a nightcap of the Top 20, I woke up super early giving Kris a huge smile in the face to wake her up along with a round of silent clapping, and we headed over to Camp 4. We warmed up a bit and the temperature went up as it approached afternoon. My first day on Midnight Lightning was kind of shitty. It was too hot, my skin went to hell, and I was only climbing up and setting up for the jump move to the lightning bolt hold when I would either slip off of the left crimp, or not have the balls to really jump for the hold.

I woke up early this morning, or actually Kris poked me at like 7a.m. and I glared at her, and then quickly remembered why she was waking me up. I wanted to get back on the problem in better temps. This morning I failed miserably at making any progress, and actually made reverse progress and thinner tips. We called it a day early and I have decided to not get back on it until tomorrow evening. I'm not really a morning person anyway.

This afternoon Kris and I hiked to Hidden Falls off the Mirror Lake trail. She had to really talk to me into it, because I am freaking exhausted. It was beautiful though. Someone had left a fixed rope on some sketchy slab so we were able to climb up to the top of the falls and get kind of naked and do some Yoga.

I am now sitting in the Awahnee hotel and it hurts so bad just to move. Kris and I are going to top our night off with some "soothers" of raspberry lemonade and hard liquor substance.

Jason on the Bachar Cracker, V5

18.5.07

climbing rocks and stuff

ok an update. Since my last post, I have sent my project Jousting at Windmills.

Brian sent Get Over It! In bad weather.

Also we checked out the Boxcar boulder in Wildbasin, RMNP. It was very nice.

Then I drank some beer and I am waiting, waiting, waiting until Sunday when I leave for Yosemite. While waiting, I decided to shoot the pellet gun for fun, and flex my muscles with Nick Selsing in the mirror. Really what else is there to do?