The Last Phantom Spire

 

The Phantom Spires standing proudly in front of a beautiful sunset

The Tahoe region is beautiful...INCREDIBLY so by my standards. The more days I spend here, the more my impression of it molds into a deeper appreciation and love for everything it has to offer. If you only enjoy road side bouldering, lots of V's behind your objective climb(s), super concentrated areas, or you drive a lowered vehicle, this place will not be your favorite climbing destination. What might we find today? Where are we even going to start? But what about the 'project'...? I usually feel like there's too much to see, explore, attempt and finish around here to make lofty stone-set goals...

You often find something perfect when you're not interested or searching to find it. I believe this can be said about other areas in life outside of climbing as well.

 

Contemplating my life while enjoying the view

I returned to Tahoe from the Utah desert on May 10th and drove straight to Donner Summit to have a look at a new problem my good friend Joel Zerr had established a few weeks earlier. I could tell it was an amazing problem from the way he had explained it to me over the phone...I had to go check it out ASAP! I smiled ear to ear as I drove along Donner Lake's edge that day admiring the vibrant colors of the Sierras...I missed this place! What I saw as I approached the climb was even better than what Joel had described to me, it was perfect...I stood at the base of the problem for two solid hours staring it down from all sides and walking through the beta over and over again in my head. I couldn't believe this thing even existed; how the hell did this remain unclimbed till now? Every person that has ever parked at the Star Wall or School Rock has seen it!! I finally walked away that night, feeling more inspired and more excited about this climb than anything I had come across on my road trip.

'The Drawing of the Three', v11ish

I strategically rested and warmed up the following few days with hopes of returning to attempt 'The Drawing of the Three' the following week. It was a perfect day. Conditions were grand and my psyche was high...a little too high. I had to fight to keep myself calm all day since I wasn't slated to meet Joel and Jake until 4:00 PM. Having already been awake for over 9 hours, we were finally climbing!! I was nervous but excited. I knew what to do and I could tell this problem was my preferred style. It was an emotional ascent and the problem earned a spot on, and bumped a beautiful climb from the list of my top five favorite climbs. I was elated! I felt certain there was no way I could possibly climb a better problem or even one that was equally grand for a long time...maybe ever?

 

The Insanity Project...it's insane!

 

A day or two later, I greeted Jon and Dave as they returned from bouldering at an area called 'The Ghosts' and both of them immediately began spouting to me about this beautiful, mega highball project they thought would be possible; they both claimed it had my name on it. I went back with them to check it out the following week and, again, my mind was blown. THIS thing, is INSANE!!!

 

The Phantom Spires...

 

 

Raddest boulder ever?

The Phantom Spires tower out of an alpine wilderness in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on a scenic, stair-stepped-like hilside above highway 50. Warren Harding and John Ohrenschall first climbed the Upper and Lower spires in the mid 1950s before the modern age sport and trad routes that would come throughout the following fifty years. At the crown of the mountain and atop the final stair in the hill, a massive boulder stacks perfectly to the edge of the steep decline that plunges down the hillside toward the Upper Spire. The setting is serene. The view is spectacular. The rock is amazing. The line is unbelievable. The movement, and for that matter the height of the problem, is pure insanity...  

 

First Session trying the problem

 

 

 

Sunrise from camp above the Spires

 

 

Sunset from the same camp spot

I was hooked! My priorities shifted and it was all I could think about and all I wanted to climb on. Motivation was high; I even started training...

 

Hangin' with the proj and the Kona dog on a non-climbing, training day

Day 3: I fell from the crux move high on the problem. I looked up at the climb as I stumbled to my feet and noticed I had just broken a key hold and it was now significantly worse...'Damn' I thought...now it's even more challenging.

 

 

Jon and I hiked 10+ pads down to the proj between the two of us on four separate visits...even bouldering can be high commitment and can feel like a big objective!

 

Day 5: I knew I was going to do it some day...I HAD to! Over three weeks had passed since I first saw and tried the proj and my last two sessions on the problem were, so far, less productive than my first three. I broke through my slump and got to my high point that day, falling from the final crux move on one of my last attempts. Each day that I left the problem without success added to my excitement and psyche. I began to almost enjoy failing because that meant I got to keep thinking about it, wanting it and working toward it.

 

Day 6: Seth, Jon and I were amazed by the conditions. A nice breeze was swishing around us, the air temp was roughly 60 degrees and the sun blazed overhead in a cloudless sky. Had I let go of the overpowering desire to finish the problem enough to free my mind and allow my body to relax and just climb? My mental and physical limits teamed up with the weather that day and I found the head space I had been waiting for...I topped out the mountain that day, holding back tears of joy cause boys, as you know, don't cry.

 

Holding the crux foot release

 

I named the problem 'Crown Jewel' and it truly is a dream climb for me! By my standards, the journey to complete it composed the best experience that climbing can offer. I know I will find another project that produces similar feelings and requires as much commitment someday, but for now, I'm certain it's THE best problem I've ever seen anywhere. (My friend Jon Thompson was there with me all six days rolling the cameras...some day there will be a video to share).

 

The view from the top of the 'Crown Jewel'...felt like topping out the world!

It has been extra special for me to return 'home' from such a long stint on the road where I visited some of the most famed bouldering areas in the country to find two separate problems that topped the charts and surpassed (by my snobby standards) any rock I saw on my journey. To me it speaks loudly about the quality of the bouldering that can be found in the Tahoe region. It's been an honor to have been adopted into the Tahoe culture and gifted a spot among the true locals. I hope that Dave Hatchett's new Tahoe Bouldering Guidebook series will allow for everyone else in the climbing community to enjoy Tahoe as much as I do! 

Thanks for taking the time to read...I hope you're all enjoying some summer fun and I hope to see you out at the rocks!    

The good, the bad and 'the bay'

The thought of paying a visit to my former 'hometown' had me shuffling through pages filled with mixed feelings...most of them being excited ones. My experience living in the Bay Area had been a memorable one. I always love the chance to re-visit someplace that I am fond of so it didn't take much to convince me to make the trek out of the mountains and into a seriously civilized and hip society. I went straight to work, visiting some key players in my life's script and rushing around to some of my favorite places I had grown to love throughout the eighteen months that I spent living in that crazy place. The people (lots of them), the setting, the beauty, the familiarity of it all even while squinting to see past the layer of culture shock...I gasped for air through the perception of my senses while attempting to take it all in; oddly enough it was extraordinarily enjoyable. I spent time hanging on the Marin coast, in classy coffee shops, running around ring mountain, tasted some California rain, saw countless beautiful women, fancy cars, rad hangs, had to pay to cross bridges, went shopping, wandered and ran down endless trails, and even dared to go climb in a gym. The fun to be found is endless if you have enough time and money to go look for it...

 

My mornings in Tahoe 

 

 

My mornings in 'the bay'

 

 

En route to the big city...see the psyche in those eyes?!?

 

Turtle Rock, in a field, atop Ring Mountain

 

Kinda pretty

What a foreign place for having resided within its walls for so long. It felt as if I were a tourist with a dulled and more relaxed impression of the places I felt I knew. I'm in awe of cities like these, and smile at the thought that they are frequently, even by myself, lumped together and referred to as one place...'the bay'.

 

Artwork at the Presidio

 

 

Beach time in the city

 

 

Tourist-ing about

 

 

Coffee is good for the heart and the soul

 

Had a blast paying a visit to and climbing at the brand new Dogpatch Bouldering Gym!

 

The gym is HUGE with towering 17' walls, every angle imaginable, and lots of top out boulders...HIGHBALL

 

Breaking the rules and heel-hooking in the gym

 

So many situations and events have added up and left me knowing and loving two very different styles of California life...After all, that IS life right? It's interesting to observe and reflect on how and why people choose, and/or live such drastically different realities with such drastically differing ambitions. The fire for life seems to be ignited and kindled in countless ways depending on an unending list of factors that fit in to each individual's background and personality. I'm happy to be alive and in it, watching, learning, refining, and in search of what's next. What good clean fun taking time to explore the adventure and uncertainty found inside this life continues to be. Now, back to the rocks!!
 

Down with the desert

 

 

 

There really is no place like Joe's. The 'scene' seems to be growing, but surrounding the hundreds of visiting climbers and the micro town of Orangeville is a captivating environment. At first glance I'd have thought a four week stay in Joe's Valley would be too long -or- less than ideal...nearly eight weeks later I finally left.

 

Chad Parkinson, looking cool and sending 'The Happy Spaniel' v6 or 7ish

I had been bouldering A LOT since December 1st. Hell, I'd been bouldering A LOT since September 1st... Then I turned 30. Not surprisingly, I found myself pretty worn out and injured for about three or four of the weeks I spent in Utah. When I first felt the pain of the 'old(er) guy gunning too much' tweaks I thought about calling it quits for a bit and taking off...after all, I'd been out in some form of the desert for too long already. I weighed my options for a few days and decided I would wait it out another week to see if I started getting better. Great friends and fun visitors were constantly cycling through and at least I could always hike around and look for new rocks. Besides, Orangeville has great spring weather, it's inexpensive to live, super relaxing, and happens to host a few boulders with some of the most gorgeous holds and rock and lines imaginable!

See what I mean...the perfectly sculpted features on 'Kill List' v11ish

 

 

PERFECT grips on 'Lonesome Animals' v12ish

 

 

 

'Jitterbug Perfume' is a RAD book, and happens to be the name of a problem full of equally rad holds

In the end, climbing through injuries can be a positive and productive thing for me. Sometimes I just need to tone it down a notch and having a limiting injury makes me happy to be able to climb on and enjoy the less difficult and less committing climbs. While I dreamed of my projects and waited for my body to heal itself I sought out and climbed on tons of problems I would have otherwise missed out on. Plus, higher mileage days are some of the best training days in my opinion and rarely climbing indoors makes it more difficult to have high volume sessions sometimes. My mental state and energy toward climbing also benefit when I break my focus for a while and pay closer attention to how much fun I have pursuing any and every part of climbing. I am truly in awe of how lucky we are to have the opportunity to experience all the things that climbing on rocks provides. The places, the process, the adventure, the people, the solitude, the psyche, the feeling, the moment, the hang, the failure, the search, the success...it's all sorta magical or something!

Had some wet weather during my final two weeks...it made for some nice sun sets and sun rises

 

 

Lindsey T. being hip one moment before gunning down 'Wills a Fire'

 

 

One of the best problems...ever...'#tall'

 

Check out this link to an iphone productions clip of a really nice problem called 'Radiant' near Price.

 

https://vimeo.com/65618202

 

I narrowed my focus during my final two weeks in Joe's. My injuries were almost gone and I started pushing a little harder every day without feeling any painfully familiar pain. I was super psyched to be able to go try and to actually finish every problem I wanted to do plus a few extras before I hit the road. I drove away in a state of elation, sifting through memories and feeling ridiculously high from having 'the moment' upon me all day. As I capped my time in Utah, I could hardly harness the excitement I felt to be en route to another very special place...I was Tahoe bound!!



Pain, Patience and PSYCHED in Utah!

April 8th...it's been exactly 130 days since I set sail on an open road. I've exhausted my mind and my body too many times to count since then...chasing after something that isn't really there outside of my personal motivation.

I trudged up the steep hillside, trying to avoid the patches of snow that threatened to take my feet out from under me. The goal was to check out a new problem the famed Griffin Whiteside had established last fall in the Left Fork of Joe's Valley. Griffin named the climb #tall... As I approached the base of the problem, I stared long and hard in an attempt to soak up the first impression left by the towering black and tan streaked face in front of me; I knew instantly this was a special one. The rock, the holds, the movement, the line, the situation...every aspect was perfect and beautiful to me.

 

 

If pictures could only do it justice...#tall looking like a dream

 

Big boulder problems tend to be more inspiring than the average rock climb. A friend of mine once said, 'the beauty of a line often outweighs the consequence'. I can't exactly pinpoint why, but I tend to agree; there really is something incredible about the aesthetics of a grand line that's difficult to resist. The level of commitment they often require, the idea that failure is not an option beyond a certain point, and the way the nerves feel when I'm contemplating such a climb keep me searching for the next 'good one' that screams 'BEAUTY' and makes me tingle inside. When I find a climb that 'takes me there' it grabs ahold of me until I've completed the circle and sent the problem...most climbers have hopefully experienced this 'pull' and would probably agree that it's a force that can defy gravity.

 

EMA, fighting gravity moments before he got psyched enough to overcome it!

 

 

 

Beautiful desert hiking in Pine Creek Canyon

Pine Creek Canyon is found at the end of the scenic loop drive in Red Rocks, Nevada and twists and turns deep into seemingly endless mountains of sandstone. It's quite impressive and somewhat extra special that such a serene and alternate world can be found just a few miles outside of the insanity that flows forever within the city limits of Las Vegas. The sound of the stream is calming as the hike continues below beautiful red rock walls towering hundreds of feet above both sides of the narrow canyon floor. Eventually, a giant boulder of the highest quality sandstone sits perched on an embankment along the right side of the canyon. Ariana beams with beauty...the kind I can't look past.

 

 

 

 

 

Several different views of 'Ariana'

 I was even more nervous after rappelling the line and rehersing the crux move a number of times behind the safety of the rope. This problem was different than anything else I'd pursued. The boulder itself sits at the bottom of a gentle slab and the landing only extends from the base of the problem for a mere seven feet or so. At this point the landing drops down another ten plus feet into a chasm of rocks. Ariana stands approximately 30 feet tall if you were to measure from the ground to the point of security...missing the small landing pad is not an option from high on the climb, but I was pretty certain it would be possible to fall from the crux move and still land in a safe place... 'Safe' meaning facing the possibility of a plunge from above twelve feet. If I did stick the crux move, I figured I could not fall safely above it so I tried to rule that out as a possibility. The mental battle presented itself. My finger tips were sweating. Kona whimpered and paced, letting me know she did not approve of the anxiety she must have sensed...

I left the ground and floated through the type of moment I spend so much time searching for. Nothing went through my mind and it was as if my surroundings disappeared. All of the built up emotion and desire faded away and I was climbing. I scampered up the slab on top of the boulder smiling. Ariana was the most committing boulder problem I'd ever tried...it ended exactly as I'd hoped it would and the experience qualified as one of those 'moments in climbing I'll always cherish'.



Sending shot...photo: Jake Novotany



I chalked up at the base of #tall. As I climbed through the first crux and headed higher I felt the same rush I've grown familiar with. Every move and hold felt as it should and my confidence grew as I approached the final difficult reach maneuver...In my mind I was executing the move and soon to be topping out when my left foot slipped off it's hold and I plumetted to the pad from too high up. I walked away that night, battered, fatigued and fueled with excitement to return the next morning for another attempt. I awoke the following day to find my name scribed on the injured list. My knee ached and I couldn't straighten it all the way. Something was also wrong with my left hand. Making a fist was extremely painful in the center of my palm...I figured I must have tweaked it on the odd gaston pocket grip at the crux...I wondered how badly I was hurt and how long it might take for me to heal.

All I can do now is wait. I'll fill the days on the bench with icing, reading and lots of fluids to hopefully speed the healing process. I can tell I'm on the mend, waiting patiently to return healthy enough for another attempt.

 

My view from icing my limbs in the frigid river water...#tall sits up on the hillside just to the left of the center of this photo

 

Scott's AMAZING new problem 'Lonesome Animals'...SUPER PSYCHED!!

 

 

Drew going 'Beyond Life' in front of a small Spring Break! audience

 

 

'Trent's Mom'...one of the greats!

 

 

Shannon Joslin crushing on 'Resident Evil'

 

 

Ian McIntosh climbing 'BMOS' on the new-ish Smile Boulder

 

 

Tired spaniel #desertdog

 

 

New problem Colby and I put up called 'First Impression' on the Nerf Wall.  How can pockets that cool even exist?!?

 

 

Best. Pad. Ever!

 

Thankfully there is no shortage of fun to be had here and great friends to explore and climb around with while I'm mending! Orangeville happens to be one of the more relaxing places to hang, camp and climb that I've visited. Recovering from injury can be a bit maddening while on a climbing trip but I believe it's a message from my body telling me to be more careful and perhaps slow down a bit every once in a while...