Showing posts with label Bouldering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bouldering. Show all posts

Friday, April 21, 2017

More Bouldering in the Sierras

David climbing Saigon Direct (V9). Dave Vuono photo.
We've lived in the Sierras for almost two years now. Needless to say, in addition to climbing near our new home of Reno, we continue to spend as much time as possible in Bishop and Yosemite.

Friday, June 3, 2016

Bouldering in Vegas, Stays in Vegas.


Classic view from the Buttermilks toward Mt Tom
Christine and David's multi-state pebble crushing adventures over the past 6 months.

In the last few months, Christine and I have had the chance to take a couple of short trips, and to work on some creative projects. In December/ January, David's brother and his girlfriend came for a two-week visit from Sweden. We split our time between Bishop and Las Vegas, bouldering the whole time.

Friday, March 25, 2016

Bouldering before the Tahoe Snow

Christine attempts Slam Dunk (V7) during the Boulder Bash, an outdoor community competition at Castle Peak
(just west of Truckee).
When we weren't working or studying, we spent this past fall exploring the area around our new home, Reno. It's really cool to live in an area where the shear number of established boulder problems and routes is overwhelming–and that's not to mention the problems and routes that have yet to be discovered. Beyond the enormous quantity of rock here, the quality of the granite is excellent, which makes it even more satisfying to climb, and makes us even more excited to look for more rock in the future. 

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Red Rocks Bouldering


This past winter we were able to take a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada to boulder for two weeks. It was our first major trip in our new/ converted van, Rodney. We'd both been to Red Rocks previously to rope climb, but neither of us had ever really bouldered in Red Rocks before this trip. We found the bouldering there to be really fun and plentiful. We were lucky enough to be joined by many friends on the trip. Following are a few images from our time there.

Friday, March 27, 2015

Chattanooga Snapshot

Not one for stasis (see: previous blog posts), I’m on the road again. After a brief stint in Oregon, I have recommenced the road trip:

You know that saying, “it’s the journey, not the destination”? Yeah, I think about that one a lot. It’s one of the many small truths I frequently wrestle with. This most recent leg of my US adventure has given my ample time to consider the implications.

It’s a forty six hour drive from Portland, Oregon to Chattanooga, Tennessee. The last half is prime reflection country. Not much going on there, in the fly over  states. Cruise control, 70 on 70, just gotta stay between the lines. 


Nate Drolet on Interplanetary Escape

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Searching for Boulders

 Over the last year or so, David and I have spent a lot of time exploring the mountain ranges of Montana, looking for new boulders. With the help of Google Earth and friends, we have honed in on several large boulder fields. However, the perfect area is yet to be found. Often, the drive to a particular location is two or more hours, with as many as 30 miles on rough dirt road. Or the hike (without pads) is in excess of one or two hours. Or the boulders are plentiful, but too slabby, too chossy, or too small. 

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

There Goes the Summer!

After missing last summer entirely due to intense classes and obligatory studying, I had big plans for this summer: climb, hike, fish, develop routes and boulders, relax, etc... However, this summer brought with it an unexpected surprise: a stubborn concussion that I got whilst water skiing--oops!

Because of this, I ended up missing a lot of work and spending week after week indoors, eyes closed and curtains drawn. 

However, just as my concussion started to fade, David's entire family arrived from Sweden for a visit. While they were here, we did all of the things I'd been planning to do:
Fishing on the Madison

Monday, September 22, 2014

Mile 18


David and I have been spending a lot of time with our friend, Sander, south of Big Timber, Montana in the Beartooth Mountains. Though a handful of people had "brushed" a few problems here and there, most of these rocks were untouched until this summer.

Sander made an awesome movie about the weeks we've had here so far this season.
Christine

Christine making easy work of High Noon.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Searching for Boulders


Looks more like ski season...









Last Saturday my friend, Sander, and I decided to head into the southern Tobacco Route Mountains to look for new boulders. I had used Google Earth to look at the mountains there, and found a couple of really big boulder fields with really big-looking boulders.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Bouldering Near Nye, Montana: A Short Video

A couple weekends ago, I went with some friends to Nye to boulder for my first time ever. My friend, Ryan has been bouldering there quite a lot, but the place has seen very little traffic aside from that. On the day we were out, we all got to do some first ascents, and climb a lot of cool problems. Here's a video about the day!

/David

PS If you guys aren't metal fans, you can just mute the video!


First day in Stillwater from varmlandsmaskinen on Vimeo.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Decapitated while Stuck in the Snow

After seeing Jon Scott hauling *ss through deep, heavy snow, plowing the road into the parking lot for Whiskey Gulch with his Subaru (not a truck), I felt like I had to follow his tracks. Literally.

Now I realize that's not always a good idea. This ended up leading to a 1.5-hour, 6-person evacuation job. While I was going into hardcore survival mode, I was a little confused to see the rest of the party laughing and having a good time. I guess I just have to spend a little more time in Montana and its driving conditions and get toughened up a little bit.

It was a good start to the day. Everyone climbed a lot, despite snow being everywhere, and I was able to do  the first ascent of a classic, open project on the Caught in the Act Boulder. I called it "Decapitated," V11, named after the Polish metal band that we all love.

/David Sjöquist

Friday, November 22, 2013

Pipestone Pass Bouldering: 8 Hours of Climbing and Likely as Many First Ascents

We went out to Pipestone Pass (near Butte, Montana) again last weekend and spent a full day in an area called The Druthers, as well as in other boulder fields surrounding that area. In just a day, many new problems were cleaned and climbed--mostly easy/ moderate problems, but some harder ones as well! Plus, a handful of new projects were born. Following are some photos of the day:

Monday, November 11, 2013

Pipestone, Montana Bouldering

A couple of weeks ago, Christine and I had the chance to boulder at Pipestone Pass (near Butte, Montana) for our first time. 
Every time I had driven over Pipestone Pass along I-90, I had always noticed the thousands of boulders covering the hillsides. However, whenever I talked to people about it, they seemed to think that all of the boulders were blank and of pretty bad quality.
This weekend, however, we were lucky to get a tour from some guys who have been climbing in the area for a while--real local experts.
Because it was cold and snowy in the mountains, they took us to one of the lower elevation areas. We got to climb on a lot of established problems, and I was able to do a few really excellent first ascents, as well! 

I think that this is one of the best areas I've climbed in Montana, and just walking around a little, we found so many future problems on great rock! 

I'm really excited that bouldering season is starting in Montana, and I hope to post a lot of updates on this area in the future. Meanwhile, here are some photos from our first day at Pipestone. 
Even with all the pads, the project remains undone.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Soho Crash Pad

This is my attempt at a review of the Soho Crash Pad. I've been using this pad for about 2.5 years. It's served its purpose in Bishop, Joe's Valley, Las Vegas, Little Cottonwood Canyon, Wyoming and lots of small areas in Montana. 

Friday, October 11, 2013

Bouldering in Dye, Värmland, Sweden

Late this summer, David Sjöquist and I went to Sweden to visit his family for two weeks in Värmland. We were there to celebrate our wedding with his and my family, and so spent most of our time doing family stuff. However, we were able to get out for a few bouldering sessions at their local cliff, Dye. 

Though it's small, this granite cliffband has dozens of excellent problems--from warm-ups to serious projects, on top-quality granite. Edges, slopers and pinches! 

Here are some photos from the trip.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Flannery invades Squamish.

An inspiring friend on an inspiring thing
I like Squamish, BC a lot. This isn't the first time I've said it, and it won't be the last. I've spent 3+ months there in 3 years, and though I wasn't climbing every minute of every day, that's a lot of bouldering. But all that time doesn't stop me from feeling like I never want to climb there again at least once per trip. Squamish has the steepest learning curve of any area I've ever been to. Every time I return to the forest, I need at least a week (sometimes more) to get reacquainted with the style. Last year it was so bad I (and others)[1] refused to take rest days, lest we lose the knack. It seems that even the locals need a couple days to remember how to do it right.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Lava Lake Bouldering

We're continuing to explore Bozeman's local climbing. One place we happened to visit this weekend was Lava Lake--a bouldering area in Gallatin Canyon.

A bit more than two miles' hike and some minor tallus scrambling keeps this place pretty quiet--as evidenced by the lack of polished holds; even on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, we were the only climbers there.


Thursday, June 13, 2013

2013 Vail Bouldering World Cup, Forerunning

I’m Flannery Shay-Nemirow, and I’m new to the Mammut athlete team. In between road tripping around the West Coast and hanging out in Denver, CO, I was asked to come in and forerun the Vail, CO World Cup.



Dave Wetmore on his way to winning the pre-comp comp
Phillip Symons slab campusing for lyfe





I’ve been climbing for about half my life and have years of experience in the way of competition. Recently, I came to the conclusion that I’m not cut out for the life of comp climber. After failing to make finals (sometimes spectacularly) time after time, I talked some USAC setters into letting me forerun the problems. Through this, I’ve been around for many ABS nationals, USA bouldering world cups, and more local competitions than I can recall.
Chris Danielson having fun with forerunning 

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Bouldering Nationals

I know it's ski season and all... but I'm going to throw some rock scaling in here anyhow.  Last month was my first ABS Nationals as a US citizen and I managed to get 3rd in a highly competitive field, which places me on a USA bouldering team.  I'm psyched to share this news as I'm getting ready for sport climbing nationals coming up in just a few weeks!  In the meantime, enjoy the men's and women's highlights provided by the LT11 crew!

If interested, check out my (longer) blog post!

Cheers,
-Vasya Vorotnikov


Thursday, February 7, 2013

Bishop Fail/ Whiskey Not Fail



Howdy ho! Ah yes. The cozy winter continues to roll on here in Montana. Our pants are getting tighter, and our skin is getting whiter.

Since my last post, David returned from Sweden. Our original plan had been to drive to Salt Lake City, say hello to the good folks at the Outdoor Retailer Show, and continue on to Bishop, California for a 10-day bouldering trip.

However, when David came back to the U.S., he brought with him a good, ol'-fashioned case of influenza! Whoops! And, you'll never believe it--but I came down with it, too! Crazy!

So anyway, the 12 days we would have spent travelling were instead used for sweating, shivering, aching, coughing and nose blowing. So it goes!

Yeah--it was definitely a bummer to miss out on a mid-winter sun week. Both of us would have enjoyed the vitamin D and climbing inspiration. Yet, in lieu of this trip, many other good things have happened:
  • David got a job! And one he really likes!
  • We've continued to deepen our interest in jiu jitsu... and
  • We cornered a local hero into taking us out to Whiskey Gulch--a bouldering area about 90 miles west(ish) from Bozeman.


Though I grew up in the fair "City" of Bozeman, and was actually a fringe partaker of the early Whiskey Gulch days, nowadays we definitely need an interpretive guide to get to Whiskey and find our way around the place. In the 14 years since I spent time there, a lot of development has taken place... and a lot of brain cells have died floated away. (Not to mention that, according to David, my skin is now saggy.)

If you ask me, a partly cloudy day in Montana in February is a little too cold for effective climbing. But if you ask David, the conditions were perfect! So we put on our long underwear and super large down jackets, and took some photos.

Enjoy!