Chaac Video

Here's a new video of me climibing Joel Campbell's new Problem Chaac, and Joel doing the possible first ascent of a neat problem below the Green Boulder. Enjoy!

Glen's Problem

Here's a video of Johnny climbing Glen's Problem in the Clearcut last weekend. Enjoy!

Gold Bar!!!

I went up to Gold Bar last weekend with Cortney, Joel, Drew Schick, Kyle, Johnny, and Sara. It was cold and foggy the entire way up, but in the clearcut we were above the clouds and had bluebird conditions. The road has been mostly destroyed by the winter weather and the dirt bikers, so we were forced to park about halfway up and walk the rest of the way. Still, it was worth it...

We climbed in the clearcut on Saturday, then headed back down the hill and camped in the Index town wall parking lot like the lurkers we are. On Sunday we lost Kyle, but we had the same gorgeous weather, and spent most of the day wandering around the woods. There weren't any especially noteworthy sends for the weekend, except seeing Johnny climb Glenn Gerbatz's Glenn's Problem on the Fraggle Rock boulder, a highball sandbag that has been notorious since Kyle took his 20-foot ass-rocket in Northwest Connection. Also worth mentioning was the additional traffic given to Joel Campbell's new Chaak, on the east side of the large top-rope boulder above Funpuppet and Dookie's Pinchfest. This tall slab features a tricky dyno off of a smear to a balancey, committing hand-foot-match topout - a two-pitch boulder problem. I should have a video of these two problems ready soon, but for now, here are some pictures.

Walking up the Hill...

Above The Fog

The Clearcut

Johnny highballin' at Que Luna Kyle topping out Cole's "Caned Lune"
Johnny Again

Kyle at Fraggle Rock

Painted Stone at Index Redneck Parking Spot Chaak A Sea of Clouds

Rattlesnake Lake

Last weekend I went out to North Bend and hiked around near Rattlesnake Lake with Cortney, Johnny, and Joel. It was really snowy and wet, but nice to get outside. We hiked around the lake, then up to the trial via some boulders in the woods. We arrived at the top of the ridge just as it was getting dark, and slid most of the two miles back to the car.

Rattlesnake is a decent spot, especially for its closeness to the city, and even has a project or two, but I still couldn't help longing for dry, sun-drenched granite... Perhaps this weekend will bring some better climbing weather and I'll get out to GB or beyond.

The Lake, The Boulder, and The Ridge

Washington's Best Boulder???

Giants Lurking In The Woods

Cole Allen's Psychofemale

Happy Hikers

Scary Summits

Darkness

Happy New Year

I want to take this late opportunity to wish everyone a happy New Year and the best for the coming year. 2008 brought many ups and downs for this country and for the world, but 2009 offers many new hopes, among them a new American president full of promise and inspiration.

Personally, 2008 was one of my best years so far, with many joyful climbing moments, the development of a very positive and healthy relationship, and the start of an exciting new chapter in my education and career. I can only hope that I'll be as lucky in 2009.

Here's a slideshow of some of the better climbing moments of the last year, as memorialized here on NW Granite. Thanks for following this journey, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Cascade River Park

Cortney and I went up to Joe's cabin near Marblemount in the North Cascades two weekends ago for some relaxin' and snowy adventures. We saw a handful of Eagles on the way, and made it there in a couple of hours even with the great northwest 'blizzard' of 2008. Perhaps municipalities on the west side of the Cascades will finally join the rest of the country's northern states and decide to invest in a snowplow or two.

Joe's newly acquired cabin is tiny and still pretty, shall we say, rustic, so we stayed in his dad's cabin a couple hundred yards away. Cascade River Park is an interesting place. The neighbors are definitely characters, but the scenery is amazing and it definitely has a secluded feel. That is, until the drunk old man next door stumbles in at noon to mumble about something mundane. All in all, the whole weekend was wonderful. It was great to see Joe, as well as get some more outdoor time with Cortney before we both headed home for the holidays. I'm really excited to head back up there this winter and do some backcountry skiing.

The Cabin

The View from the Cabin's Porch

The view from up the road -
the Eldorado Glacier can be seen in the left background

Happy Hikers

Getting Prepared For Some Car Skiing

We do enjoy Washington Wildlife...

Home Gardens

Things have been getting a bit restless around the monkey house this winter, and we have had to resort to creatvie methods to combat the winter boredom. Personally, I am feeling gleefully useless now that I'm officially "on break," and have to find things to do just to justify getting out of my warm bed. These sentiments, coupled with a recent influx of some 200 square feet of high-quality indoor gymnastic foam, have led to the founding of Home Gardens.

Home Gardens is not a place, it's a mindset. Once one is liberated from an unreasonable fear of the floor, and comes to embrace unused home space as an opportunity for entertainment, entire new windows of enjoyment are opened... and I'm just going to leave it at that. Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Spongejoel Squareshirt

Dimitry showing off his K-Flip