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!!