It's been a great spring here in Eastern Idaho. Despite much traveling to far off places, I've been able to keep active in my own backyard. My rekindled passion for bouldering in the Lower Teton River Canyon has yielded over two dozen new boulder problems. From near 30' highballs to powerful overhung craziness! The cherry on top was quickly dispatching a project that i thought would take me sometime to complete. It must have been a low gravity day or something! San Callisto V9 has been the highlight of my efforts down there. The low spot in activity at the Lower Teton River Canyon is when my three crash pads got stolen while i was in Vermont. I stashed them well off the beaten path of activity so my friend could continue to work on his project while i was away. Double sadness, stolen pads and not enough padding for the highball project...

Warming up on my route Scream, Dracula, Scream at the Catacomb Sector of the Teton Dam Bouldering Zone.

While in Vermont for the Sales Meeting, i took a bad spill while bouldering at Smuggler's Notch; landing square on my tail bone on the only un-padded rock. What i thought was just some bad muscle bruising, turned out to be a bruised pelvis... not psyched. Sitting doesn't last for very long, walking seems to be okay for the most part, although i do walk with a gimpy limp, and hanging in a harness is tolerable albeit painful.

So without any bouldering pads to continue my efforts in the Lower Teton River Canyon, i have been making the two mile walk (gimpy waddle) up Palisade Creek to the Weeping Cave. This is an awesome little limestone zone in a lush canyon. The routes went in last summer and there are still three remaining projects. I focused my efforts last fall on a line we call the Basilisk, but only put in a few good days of projecting on it. My two visits this week have been somewhat productive on the Basilisk with finding a sequence that just might work for me. Still light years away from even getting close to sending this rig, it is very easy for me to say this is by far the hardest route I've projected in my life, which, is very exciting to me!

Here are a few images of the movement on the Basilisk

Anyone who's read any of my posts or knows me is probably tired of hearing about all theinjuries.

I swear I'm not trying to be passive about this! As much as I climb, I try also to stretch, do antagonist exercises, etc... I also listen to my body, and stop when things hurt... But all of a sudden: Pop! Ouch! A new injury that I never saw coming.

I recently bought a book, Pilates for the Outdoor Athlete (Lauri Ann Stricker, Fulcrum Publishing).

In this book, Lauri addresses athletes -climbers, runners, bikers, etc...-, their needs, common injuries, muscle imbalances. She discusses for each athlete which muscle groups need strengthening and which need stretching. After a general introduction to pilates principles, history, technique, she gives multiple routines for each sport. Additionally, a comprehensive list of exercises and stretches is given in the back, and a list organizing these by the muscles they work.

Some of you probably think I'm from exercise Kindergarten, but I've been using this book for a while, and have been excited -so I thought I should share!

-Christine Balaz

(Up at home in Montana right now, I even got my Mom to join me.)

Cannon Cliff soars high above the valley floor of Franconia Notch, New Hampshire. It's nearly 1000 feet high and over a mile wide, perhaps the most demanding and committing alpine wall in the eastern US. Cannon offers many classic routes, two that I frequently climb are Moby Grape and the best ridge climb in the east the Whitney - Gilman. I have posted some photos and descriptions of two recent climbs with Jerry and Aubrey guests of Mooney Mountain Guides.

The Whitney Gilman Ridge 5.7 with the Black Dike in the shadowed cleft. The WG was first climbed in 1929 by Bradley Gilman and Hassler Whitney in 17 short pitches without the use of pitons. At that time it was the hardest climb in America.

harvesting the corn on Cobb pk