12.1.09

dude

Al pal checking out the moves
Al pal split her tip

G on Evilution

Alex and Charlie...soulmates
Trish do not read this part.... In preparation for topping out Evilution Alex decided to test her mental highball skillz by climbing a super chossy 5.6 sport climb. Scotty and I cringed every time the little pebbles she stepped on crumbled and fell to the ground. The best part was the top when she attempted to pull over a large bulge. It was the dodgiest move of the climb. Her feet slipped and her left hand hold crumbled beneath her super strong grip. She said, "wo pony" and stepped back safely onto a ledge to prepare for the down climb. Scotty then shared his broken back story with me while Alex was downclimbing.Tiredness wins sometimes

YEah!!! no just kidding.. i climbed down from the top to see if I could span the move. SO hard.

I have boat loads of more photos but there are so many I have yet to look through them.
Patience JJ.

5.1.09

bishop

Alex Johnson sending Evilution (to the lip)
A few days ago I loaded up Alex's Subaru and hit the road towards Salt Lake. She was en route from Puerto Vallerta to SLC where I swooped her up at the airport, crashed at tall Paul's then across the salt flats into the depths of Nevada we drove. With no antifreeze to be found in her radiator we over-heated a little, but managed a refill and made it to Reno. Deb, Alex's GPS directed us to a restaurant where we ate a delirious dinner pre-driving through the icy mountains. I drove, Alex slept:) It was slow going but we made it by midnight!

exercising the dingo in the salt flats

Our first day we "took it easy" and Alex flashed High Plains Drifter, Change of Heart, and got scared on the V2 next to Center Green Wall, which we both did, and I am very psyched about.

After a night full of back spooning with Alex and Kitty, as well as an accidental turning off of the heater in our room, we went out for our second day at the Buttermilks. Alex did Seven Spanish Angels and Get Carter. It was cooold. Our friends from Minnesota Eric, Kris, and Lynn climbed with us and Kris sent his first nine Michael Cane stand.

Lynn on Get Carter
Kris sending
Alex on Get Carter
Her awesome foot workPetey
Seven Spanish Angels
We made our way back to the main area to find another boulder to tickle our fancy. We started under the Grandpa Peabody boulder then meandered over to Evilution to watch the crazies almost top it out. Alex looked at me and smiled and I could tell she was psyched so we relocated our crashpads. The first move is the hardest, or so everyone says because I never managed to do the second. However, I was psyched to stick it a few times and also have Alex push my ass to it a few times so I could try the second. That is probably the only reason she is sore today. It is such an intimidating wall! After a few tries Al stuck the first move and then all of a sudden she was sticking the big move to the right hand jug thing. Next go was the send! Nice climbing Alex!

Tiffany on Evilution
An attempted sequence.

Emma caught mid snout lick with her owner caught enjoying a beer below
The temps are supposed to go up so our hands can stop doing the screamy barfy thing that Lisa informed us of. This is where you try really hard on cold rock and your hands go completely numb. When the blood starts to come back it is super painful and you get the screamy barfies. It hasn't happened to me yet because I haven't tried hard, but poor Alex has been sitting on the tops of the boulders she sends with the screamy barfies rocking back and forth in pain. ah haa. Hopefully is won't get too warm. We shall see.