disjoint thoughts

From events

Tonight, from 7-10 a group of ASU Interior Design student will be holding an event to raise money for victims of domestic violence. It’s a climbing event held at the Phoenix Rock Gym. It should be a fun. I’ll be there taking pictures, and a friend of mine will be DJ’ing. If you’re looking for something to do tonight and you want to boost your karma points, you should stop by. Here’s more details:

Climb for a Cause!!!

Rock climb for Chairity as your complete entrance fee will raise money for victims of domestic violence!

4th year Interior Design students at
Arizona State University:
- create a chair that encompasses the mission of The Family Advocacy Center while promoting awareness of domestic violence
- builds a chair that is inspired by an artist or artistic movement
- raise money or use donated supplies/services to build the chair The chairs will be auctioned off in Spring 2010 at the annual CHAIRity gala where all proceeds benefit The City of Phoenix Family Advocacy Center

The chairs will be auctioned off in Spring 2010 at the annual CHAIRity gala where all proceeds benefit The City of Phoenix Family Advocacy Center

September 26th
7pm – 10pm
Phoenix Rock Gym
1353 E. University Dr.
Tempe, AZ 85281

only
$ 5 without gear
$ 10 with rental gear
Cash or Check accepted only

Enter raffle and win!

For more information contact Elena Reiche
602.460.6704 or email ejreiche@asu.edu

Marty Karabin is a local climbing legend and a really nice guy to boot. He’s put up hundreds of routes and published lots of guidebooks as well. He’s brought me to secret crags, and even taught me how to bolt a route.

Unfortunately, Marty’s fallen on some hard times and is in need of financial support for medical bills. I’ll let Greg Opland’s post on mountain project explain the details:

First off, Marty is alive, so this isn’t a horrible post.
Too many of those lately.

But, Marty was bouldering last week up by Salt Lake City while he was there for the OR show, and cratered into the pads. They saved his head and shoulders, but his leg augered in under him and he came out with a badly broken femur. He was in the hospital for a bit while they plated and screwed his leg back together, but he is expected to make a full recovery. He is returning to Phoenix sometime today.

Now for the bad part… Marty didn’t have medical insurance. Friends have set up an account in case other friends and partners in the community want to donate to help him out with what I’m sure are pretty horrendous medical bills. I believe the PRG guys are working on a couple of fund raiser projects as well, so stay tuned for info on those. Marty has spent a load of his own money over the years putting up a boatload of great routes in the Phoenix area (and elsewhere), so maybe this is a good time for some of us to pony up and help him out.

If you’d like to help Marty out, here’s the account info:

Marty Karabin Recovery Fun
Wells Fargo
Name on the account: Robert Olson
Acct Number: 9613232793

Note: To donate to the account, you need to provide the name on the account and the account number. The name on the account (because he set it up) is Robert Olson.

Here’s a couple of pictures of poor Marty recovering…

Get well soon Marty!

The the past few weekends have been filled with deary rain for me. Three weeks ago we were rained out in Cochise Stronghold. The week after, it rained Friday and Saturday. Not wanting to let the rain get me down by spoiling my climbing plans, I went out and hiked my favorite rainy day hike: Peralta Trail. The trail head is located an hour or so from Phoenix (depending on where you’re coming from) on the southern edge of the Superstitions. It’s a very popular trail, with wonderful views, and a feeling of being completely in the wilderness. Here’s the reasons why I like this hike in the rain…

#1 The sound of running water is music to my ears. The trail follows and criss crosses with a wash as the trail makes it way up towards Fremont Saddle. Most of the time this wash is bone dry. When it rains it’s a completely different story. The sound of rushing water follows you through most of the hike. Rock hoping or even wading (when it rains enough) across the wash is always fun too.

#2 Waterfalls. Yes, that’s right. There’s waterfalls in the middle of the Arizona desert. You’ll see dozens of them off the ridges on either side of the trail.

#3 Hiking in the clouds is fun. It can also be disorienting. When it’s raining, the clouds like to hang low over the saddle. It’s awe inspiring to look up and see Zonerland or Weaver’s Needle partially hidden in wisps of mist.

You can check out the rest of my pics from the hike here. Unfortunately my camera somehow got set to low resolution resulting in pics that look like ass. If you really want to see them in high res, get out there and hike it yourself. It’s a great trail.

I’m usually not picky about where I eat… except when it comes to sandwiches. I tend to make epic sandwiches on my own: a couple types of meat and cheese, tomatoes, avocados, bell peppers, olives, lettuce, sprouts, onions… mmmmmmm. So when it comes time to choose a place for the JumpBox crew to go to lunch and the choice of food is sandwiches, I only like to go for the best. And in Tempe, the best I’ve found is Sacks.

Another great sandwich place in Phoenix is Duck and Decanter. So yes, I am a sandwich snob Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m hungry.