Voodoo

Just dropped homeboy Andy Mann off at the airport after hanging out and shooting some photos and video over the last few days. We put in a long day dangling off of Little Si yesterday in some pretty dang warm temps, but the footage of 'New World Order' looks amazing. Andy's film making has really grown up over the last couple years as he's focused more and more on video alongside photography projects. I'm psyched to see what he does with the clips we gathered here in Seattle, but in the meantime, I'm enjoying this awesome piece that we did back in March on the Virgin River Gorge - proudly presented by my rope sponsor Maxim Ropes (have a look at their brand new website). I love seeing this fresh look on an American classic, Necessary Evil, along with other VRG test-pieces.

After ten days of hanging out and climbing in Seattle, I was finally fettered by rain and wet conditions this past weekend - I feel quite lucky actually, part of me was expecting to get a few dry climbing days in total. To remain psyched I checked out the brand new, humungous Seattle Bouldering Project and had a rowdy session at the classic Vertical World.

Thankfully, even with a couple wet grips I managed to finish off an incredible project at Equinox - a proud extension to a burly 13a called 'Black Magic'. It features powerful moves on thin holds highlighted by a truly incredible finishing boulder problem, and offers essentially no opportunities for rest. I'm naming the extension 'Voodoo' and suggesting 14b for the grade based on other routes at the cliff - it's a sizable step up. Huge thanks to local hardman and developer Kimmo Nissinen for giving me the green light to take down this pitch... it's a killer line.

Bret learns about Hi Fructose Corn Syrup... the hard way

Andy gets fired up on a rapid paced Banana Slug

Now I'm starting to think ahead about my plans for July and about that 20 hours of driving I've got on the horizon... not super psyched. I'll spend a couple more days hanging around lovely Seattle before heading back to Colorado very briefly to finish moving out of my place, set a few routes at the BRC and get prepared for the International Climbers Festival in Lander!