disjoint thoughts

A couple of months ago Erin and I put together a couple of videos on the topic of the mining in Queen Creek for the Queen Creek Coalition. Here they are for your viewing pleasure:

This would be what my mop looks like after two days sweating beneath a climbing helmet.

Here’s the rest of the pics from my weekend in Tahquitz.

…my car is covered in mud.

Check out the rest of the pics from my trip to Paradise Forks a couple weekends ago.

Savoeun and I went climbing out at Sven Slab on Sunday and had a little unexpected adventure. The first route we hopped on was a lovely crack called One for the Road. I was half way up the first pitch, and thoroughly enjoying myself, when I started to get attacked by bees. I soon realized that the ledge at the top of the first was the home for a hive of killer bees. Bummer. Sav and I managed to retrieve all our gear, but I ended up getting stung in the face three times! So what’s it like getting stung in the face by killer bees?

It sucks. It doesn’t hurt, but it’s pretty uncomfortable. It’s a little comical too. I can’t smile or laugh and keep my eyes open at the same time!

The past two weekend I’ve spent climbing in Red Rocks, Nevada. In these four short days I’ve climbed some of the most amazing, long, and fun routes of my climbing career. Of particular note is a route called Community Pillar. Now this climb might not be your typical “classic” route, but it was HILARIOUS. The amount of squeezing through improbable holes and up tight chimneys you do is mind blowing. And watching people attempt to go through holes they are fairly certain will get them stuck is entertainment like nothing else. Here’s a video I made for my climbing partner Erin who couldn’t join me because she’s in Nova Scotia:

You can check out the photos I took from both weekends here, and here.

Here’s my latest climbing shirt creation. A little flavor or trad with some sexual innuendo…

front:

…and the back:

You can get your own via cafepress here.

About a month ago Erin convinced me to do Totem Pole with her. It’s a classic Queen Creek route that goes up a free standing spire for about 150ft. Its summit is about the size of a small couch. The climb is good, the summit is pretty damn sweet, and there’s nothing quite like climbing hard, giant, phallic objects.

My friend Jason asked me for beta on the route, and I thought I’d repost what I gave him here:

1st pitch: throw a cam in as your first piece. I think I used the red link cam, so probably a #2 or #3 camalot would work. 5.9 climbing up until the 3rd bolt. Right at the 3rd bolt is the crux of the 1st pitch. There’s a chalked to hell sloper right next to the bolt that you want to use, but don’t. Climb it like an arete with your arms stretched WAY out and work your feet up high. Stand up, and hit a decent ledge. I fell here once trying to dyno off the sloper, the bolt completely protects you. The rest of the pitch is probably 5.8ish.

2nd pitch: walk up a low angle ramp and clip the first bolt. Right after the first bolt there’s maybe 3 or 4 balancy moves on small ledges and crimps. Marty thinks this is the crux of the climb, I was able to sail through it after hanging on the bolt and studying it for a minute. Easier climbing through bolts 2 and 3. After the third bolt you hit the crux of the entire climb. You hit a ledge about 5 feet above the 3rd (and last) bolt, after that there’s what looks like a crack going up to the top. The crack is actually a seam that can only be used to lay back on. Unfortunately I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to lay back on it. I felt the feet just weren’t good enough. I ended up crimping on a shallow mono with my right, gastoning between that and the seam, and bumping my right up to the only good face hold in the section. After you do that you can reach up to a spot in the crack that you can jam a finger or two, then throw yourself at the ledge above and the top.

That section of climbing is pretty scary and insecure. I even scared the shit outta Erin. At that point you’re probably 7 feet from the last bolt. The fall would probably be completely clean though. I put in a 00 c3 a few feet above the bolt and hung on that before I made my attempt. If you bring some small nuts (BD 4-6ish probably), you can place a piece another foot or two higher.

You can get off in a single rap if you bring a 70m, so don’t worry about bringing two ropes. Maybe bring a little webbing to backup the old shit that’s at the top. Good luck!

Check out the rest of my photos from our climb here.

Sunday before last I spent an afternoon bouldering and sport climbing over at the Mine Area of Queen Creek. Over the past few months RCC has begun to restrict access to some of the areas of Queen Creek they own. Here’s a little update on the situation:

The road before the old parking area now has keep out signs…

… and the old parking area itself now has a fence with razor wire, yikes!

It’s not all bad news though. They’ve created a new parking area next to the road. There’s a new trail that someone has cleared from there, up the wash, and to the old trail.

Here’s my latest creation of humorous climbing apparel:

You can get your own via cafepress.

I have another design I’m working on. More of a trad climbing shirt, with sexual innuendo Look for that to show up in the next few weeks.

I love my red chili spirits. They perform very well, and I can wear them all day on a multi-pitch without worrying about comfort. The only problem I had with them was in the toe.

The problem
For some reason, red chili decided to put a sort of toe liner in the spirit. I’ve yet to see anything like this in any other shoe, including other red chili’s. The liner feels like its made of some sort of fast wicking fabric (like many shirts are) probably in an attempt to keep the toe area from getting sweaty and slick. This sounds like a good idea. The toe box of climbing shoes tend to be the hottest area with the least breathability because of the extra rubber that goes over the TOP of the toes to allow for better toe hooking.

It may have been a good idea on paper, but in reality the liner just makes things worse. When your feet sweat (which happens to me a lot here in Arizona), the liner acts like a sock around your toes. The sock just acts as another surface that you have to worry about slowly slipping as you try to keep your toe on a tiny crip. I found myself curling in my toes and lifting up my heel in desperate tempts to keep my toe in place.

The solution
Instead of ditching the spirit and finding another shoe, I decided to fix the problem: I removed the toe liner. The result was almost perfect. The toe stills feels a little sloppy when wet, but nowhere near as bad as it was before.

How-to
Disclaimer! If you mess up your shoes doing this, don’t blame me. Proceed at your own risk!

Here’s what you need to do this to your spirits: sharp scissors and pliers. The general idea is to cut the toe liner as close to where it is stitched to the shoe as possible, then rip out the pieces with the pliers.

The liner is sewn only partially to the top and sides of the shoe, so start by cutting the liner off in those areas. Once you have this done, the liner should flop down to the bottom of the shoe. The next step is to cut the liner along the bottom stitching. The best technique I found was to make small cuts along the stitching and rip/tear the liner out with the pliers. Here’s a pic of the bottom stitching:

This is a pretty slow process. Once you have the majority of the liner out you probably will need to go back and do some cleanup. I was working with size 6 shoes, obviously larger shoes will be easier to work with and smaller shoes maybe impossible. Here’s the left overs from the liner:

For me, the result of doing this little mod was amazing. It went from contemplating getting new shoes to using my spirits for all of my outdoor climbing. However, if you don’t experience any of the problems I described then this modification isn’t for you.