It was a little ambitious, no doubt.. Zachariah, KY to Boulder, CO in a day, solo. Thinking to myself, 'It'll be swift, like ripping off a band-aid! I'll just listen to a few podcasts, make a call or two..' Nothing short of heinous, 19 hours in the truck later, I made my 2am arrival. By the time I finally laid down to rest, passing yellow lines and the occasional reflective marker still played on the dark side of my eye lids. As bad as it was, I'm always first to choose one very long driving day over two shorter ones.
A familiar place, I've spent the majority of the last two decades living here in Boulder. I graduated from Southern Hills Middle School in 1999, Fairview High School in 2003, and Naropa University in 2009. I learned to climb here, I grew up here-- I love this place. I've traveled a lot through out my life, but during the last few years (2011 especially) my life has become increasingly mobile. I absolutely love the experience of traveling, above even my passion for rock climbing, but we all need a little familiarity every now and then.
Dr. Bob home improvement 101
'only 5 degrees out?!' -Mom
The Front Range is a full on winter wonderland. For now, the landscape is snow covered, the temperatures are bitter cold and sunlight is short and weak. I've taken this opportunity to start a new training cycle, get healthy and spend some quality time with my family and friends. If I were planning a long winter in Boulder the conditions would definitely have me bummin (and breaking out my skis!), but with a sunny winter in the Nevada desert on the horizon, I'm actually enjoying the snow.
I was really hoping to take my climbing to the next level in 2011, and although I did have victories and some growth no doubt, it was a plateau year for me in respects to performance. I've taken my strengths in fitness and resistant climbing about as far as I can. I've trained power here and there, making some headway but still relying primarily on endurance. For me, it's clear that my next breakthrough shall be via the realm of bouldering. My longest stint of bouldering in the last few years was in the spring of '09-- I really wanted to boulder v12, so I dropped the rope for 2 weeks
and did 'Trice' on Flagstaff Mountain. This time around I'm doubling my efforts by giving myself a
full month without a rope, and who knows, maybe it will even roll over into January...!? To make things more interesting I've added an absolutely heinous finger strength / power workout to the end of my bouldering sessions. Utilizing the Moon Board, some weighted assistance and a few recommendations from my friends and trainers Alli Rainey, Chris Wall and Tony Yao. It's been a long time since a work out stayed with me through multiple rest days, and here I am, sore as hell on rest day two!
Tony Yao getting prepared for Hueco
Exciting stuff: New camera arrived. I'm working on doing a series of video shorts, mostly highlighting lifestyle and trying to capture a vibe of the many different areas I get to visit, along with some climbing footage no doubt. I really enjoy photography and this site has been an inspiration for me to shoot as much as I can. Hope you enjoy the photos and the soon to be videos as well.
Speaking of videos, subscribe to Deadpoint Mag's The Stash and check out
some footage from this summer in Rifle. Myself, Joey Kinder, Dave Graham, Keller Rinaudo and Dave Pegg are featured.
It's not too early to get over to
Mountain Gear and register for the 2012
Red Rock Rendezvous! I'll be teaching clinics on behalf of Metolius at this awesome event outside of Las Vegas.
Come by the Boulder Rock Club this weekend for the fun and informal
BCS climbing comp. I'm breaking out the ladder to help my favorite gym set for this rad event.
