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.

Taking a stroll through downtown Bishop
Christine does Bachar Left (V5)
Checkerboard Right: a classic and underdone problem (V9)
Brother Rickard does the all-time classic, Seven Spanish Angels (V6)
David tops out East Side Story (V3)
Christine does the classic Monkey Wrench (V7), Red Rocks
David tops out Fear of a Black Hat (V9), Red Rocks. Brother, Rickard, will top it out next go.

Wanting to climb in cooler temps, David had started doing a lot more night bouldering this fall. However, he was burning through batteries like crazy using traditional flashlights and lanterns. So he and our friend, Pete, decided to make a rechargeable, super bright light box. 

The result of David's light box

Pete shows how it's done with aluminum welding
Starting to take shape...

 "Back at the Ranch" after the Bishop/ Vegas trip:
A nice morning at the office (Lake Tahoe)

Christine's study space was slowly getting smaller... and is now non-existent.

Unfortunately, this isn't in our home. Here is a mid-project photo of a garage woody David helped our friend, Sander, build in his Bay Area-garage. It's all a person needs.
David has been trying to get into some of the local (Tahoe-area) trad; here, Pete at the top of Taurus (5.11b), Sugarloaf.
David does some custodial work at Pig Rock, a small but very accessible and fun volcanic sport crag near Pyramid Lake. Based on the broken glass and numerous fire pits everywhere, it seems like the "locals" enjoy this place, too.
Pig Rock, in all its glory, with David climbing the classic "Son, Be a Dentist" (5.12b)
David does Boys in the Hood (V12), Truckee
Christine got a week off from school during March, and David decided to take the week off from work. The weather turned out to be nicest in Southern Utah/ the Arizona Strip, so that's where we went. We managed to meet up with some friends from Montana, which made the trip even more fun.

A screen grab from footage our friend, Jarred, took of David sending Old World Lullaby (5.14a).

The Infinity (9.5mm) rope after Christine climbed Greyhound (5.12a), a really cool corner route at The Grail.
Just a week after returning from Utah, David had the opportunity to meet up to do a movie project in Yosemite Valley. Lots of bouldering and a day of crack climbing.

The video below is from a weekend in Tuolumne and Yosemite Valley last fall