FIBArk

Pine Creek above and Stephen Wright right

One of the Salida Pin Ups and more boating. 

I'm off the rock temporarily and boating fever has overtaken me.  The river scene is something else here and the festivals have been rolling in.

First in Boating the Arkansas, lovingly referred to as FIBArk, hit Salida like a sledge hammer nearly doubling the year round population.  Wildwater Nationals/World qualifiers took place this season bringing in a big draw however we didn't host the Freestyle Kayaking Nationals this year.  Although after hosting them regularly for years the pros still came out for FIBArk comp as well as the Pine Creek race, slaloms boating, downriver race ect. ect.  Former members of String Cheese played Friday, while Lez Zeppelin and DJ Logic performed Saturday.

FIBArk is only one of the river festivals though.  Summer started with Buena Vista Paddlefest (for the kayakers), I missed the Teva Mtn. Games, the Gunnison River Festival and rock comp started yesterday and the Cañon festival is going on here shortly.

If river festivals aren't your thing there's also Ride the Rockies (for the bikers), Art Walk (for the circus performers) and the Brewer's Festival (for me).  The only rough part is I'm working and have to stick close to home for the weekends instead of getting on some of the crazier rivers around here. 

I could talk about some of the real debauchery I got myself into, but I'm actually really lame so I'll throw up some pictures and call it quits. 

 

         

Summer Vacation

Special thanks to Will Roth for some great shots of me on Hand Jib (above) and Mexican Crack (below) 

Jordan (above) and Josh Boyd (below) put up a heinous 5.12 roof crack that looked punishing.

Widerman (above) really wanted to knock out a 5.12 at rifle so he picked a nasty 5.11d line to warm up.  I seconded and got my ass kicked.  Props to John for the big whip though.  Caitlin and Casey hanging out at the lodge (below).  Casey added some Flight of the Conchords to his set list and had everybody mesmerized.   

Wow, my vacation wasn't much of a vacation.  I feel bad that I didn't go out to Oregon for my sister's graduation and I still tried to cram too much into a 10 day trip.  I also missed Jason's bachelor party because it was bumped back one week.  I was still able to swing through Denver and see Andrew, but to stay for one extra day meant staying through the rest of the weekend and missing out on Lochsa time...  And giving  most of my paycheck to strippers.

All the same I saw Drew and drove through the night up to the Lochsa Lodge.  A great weekend and borrowed a kayak to run the river.  We made an attempt at cutting out White Sands however even with a chainsaw, a couple of rigs and chains there was still too much snow.  Instead I got on the upper, which I'd never done before.

Back in Missoula most of the fire crews were hanging around town due to the wet weather so it was a great chance to catch up with some old friends.  Too much drinking though.  The lights came on in Charlie's three times while I was in town and I pulled one all nighter, so when the option came up to make a run for SLC I jumped on it.

I was definitely broken on the drive down and had to pull over after almost falling asleep at the wheel.  When I rolled into the bright Morman capitol there was already a wine party going on and I continued the bender.  Jordan called in sick the next day and we hit up Lil' Cottonwood.

Another night in SLC and I was off to Rifle.  Met up with John after another long drive and jumped into some hard sport, some say it's the hardest in the country. 

Ok, I'm done writing, look at the pictures.  

 

Crack Climbing

I went back out to Indian Creek Utah and it was probably the last time I'll visit until Autumn. Things are starting to heat up so I'll let the rattlesnakes have it for a while.

Otherwise I picked up where I left off and got on some hard climbs.  Perfect hand cracks are something else, but branching out into an assortment of  fingers, off-width and thin hands was a priority during this trip.

I keep thinking I'll check out more petroglyphs and Anasazi ruins, but climbing trumps everything else. I did see bunches of cryptobiotic soil (Widerman pointed out that I had trampled about 40,000 years worth) a tarantula and a rattle snake.    

John (Widerman) and his buddies Logan and Tyson Cobb, (brothers originally from Fla.) were already there and  Jordan Beattie came down after the first night while Phil Reiker and Erin Priest met up with us before I took off.  My friend Kate Chapman came down from Moab for a day, however we only saw her briefly due to switching camps.

All in all a pretty good group to climb with.  Some of my single pitch highlights had to be Scarface, Bioturbation, Big Guy and the Coyne Crack (however I took hangs on each or top roped)... Well, I was proud of myself even if I didn't pick up any redpoints.

John, Jordan and I also climbed Vision Quest up the King of Pain Tower.  After a few beers the initial plan was to climb several lesser towers on the Bridger Jack formation by 1-2 p.m., but in hindsight that was a bit ambitious.

After getting up there late and baking in the sun, we established doing one route was in our best interest.  I wasn't in the mood to attack any hard leads so after a brief look at the topo I volunteered to lead the first of four pitches. It appears to be moderate in comparison to the second, listed as off-width with unprotectable sections, or the third pitch, listed as the route crux with sections of over hanging fists and hands. 

I grabbed the gear and said farewell to those suckers that would inevitably lead the hard stuff and promptly found myself battling nasty, rattily fingers up a long dihedral.  I bumped and pushed two of Jordan's .5 inch cams up to the final push and went into a lie back towards a 3 inch ledge.  Upon arrival I snagged a shaky wrist/hand jam.  As my weight shifted and my feet lost traction the realization that I was slipping set in.  As I struggled to regain composure John thought I was struggling to get another cam in and proceeded to throw out rope for a clip.

I expected a 10 foot fall and as I kept plummeting surprise registered.  To John's credit he caught me well before I bottomed out on a ledge, but I was a bit spooked and scraped up as a result. I'm not certain what the entire length was, but it ranked up there with my biggest falls to date.

Subsequently I ran out of small gear after the section and proceeded to get off course into a squeeze chimney with a great deal of rope drag. 

Non-of the belay ledges were big enough to fit three people (comfortably) and after Jordan, put up a stellar lead on the OW I found myself on the sharp end again after collecting the majority of the gear and sitting with the least tangled rope tied to my harness.  To ease up space on the ledge I set on what was listed as the route crux.  Although it has powerful moves the section was straight forward and short. 

John took over on the final pitch, a long one, with crusty rock and a very exposed finish. I always remember my leads the best, however Jordan and John didn't have easy climbs by any standard.  I guess I'm just soft, taking whips and hangs like a light weight.