Running out of time...

Hey Blogosphere, sorry updates have been scarce recently but internet access has become something of an issue...

I'm mildly break and entering to update this now...

so we'll keep it brief.

My time here is running out. Only a few days left to climb then it's back to St. John's. I'm actually looking forward to getting home at this point. Having a whole new bouldering area to go home and develop really helps.

Um, here's a video of Cedar climbing her man problem and myself and neil phillips climbing the Fuzz.

There are a couple more videos i've shot that i will hopefully get around to editing and uploading in the next couple days...

Success for MATT LUCAS

Today MATT LUCAS sent "No Troublems". MATT LUCAS started celebrating immediately by kicking several nearby puppies.

Autobody

Had another fun day in the boulders today. Went to try climb the Problem "Auto-Body" or "Fixing the Car" (there seems to be some debate over the name) I worked out all the moves pretty quickly then got super psyched to send it. So psyched that Thomasina accused me of being overconfident and told me not to jinx myself... I'll let the video show you what happened next...

So maybe I was a little overconfident... it still all worked out in the end.

After that brad sent the ever popular "Easy in an Easy Chair".

Then I was a belay slave for Thomo for a little while while she tried "Smell the Glove" which is what Ben called "Silent Menace" after he re-climbed it after the crucial starting hold (that you have to jump to) broke off. It was 5.14a pre hold breakage. Now its pretty crazy. Thomo gets credit for trying the jump start over a big drop though, i was scared just belaying.

Anyway its midnight and i am tired so this entry is being cut short...HEY LOOK! its brad trying "Viper" v5

Oh! One more thing! I did not see MATT LUCAS in the boulders today. Did you know MATT LUCAS used to work in film and is now studying computer science?! 

MATT LUCAS

So, today I finally got it done.

 As you can see from the video MATT LUCAS was there. MATT LUCAS didn't manage to send today but I am sure MATT LUCAS will get it soon. Did I mention MATT LUCAS is an excellent spotter?

Brad had his first day of squamish bouldering today, i think he found it a little hard on his skin but he made short work of Titanic and did some good work on a bunch of other problems that should all go quickly.

Did I mention I don't have to try No Troublems anymore? Did i also mention MATT LUCAS?

Today was going to be the day; I had my new shoes, I was well rested, I felt strong, the conditions were good.

It was time to send "No Troublems". After a few tries I was feeling pretty good. I was sticking the first move really consistently, but kept popping off a couple moves later. Still I felt like I was going to make it. Then it happened. I pulled on to the start, fought my way across the roof moves and there I was, at the jug. Nothing left to do but top out.

"(though I have yet to try to moves on the kind of scary top out, I dont think they are that hard)"

I said that two blog entries ago... 

I went from the jug to a hand jam, then cross over to a pinch...then pumped out and came off reaching to the next hold. I blew it, after that I didn't  have the energy to make it through the problem again. Thomasina had told me to make sure I practice the roof moves before actually getting there. I didn't listen.

Oh well. Now I have done the top out on its own and I know I'll get it eventually. 

While I was there working on it Thomasina sent it for the first time, and Ben and Sonnie Trotter sent the lower starting version. Sonnie actually did it twice because he dabbed the first time...

T-Bird using her vulcan death grip on "No Troublems"

After that I went to work on "ATD", V7, while Ben, Thomo and Sonnie worked on dreamcatcher.

Thomasina working on "Dreamcatcher"

I Didn't fare very well on ATD and was starting to get a little frustrated. Then I watched T-Bird send "King Kong", and we went to try "The Fun Factory Low" v9. I didn't get anywhere on this at all.

By now we'd been bouldering all day and I havn't successfully climbed anything. In fact, i haven't successfully climbed anything I've had to work on this entire trip.

Ben and Thomo called it quits for the day, but I managed to convince a few people to go get on "The Rookie" V8, a problem I had worked on with Luke one of my first days here.

Much to my relief it went after just a couple goes and I instantly felt better about the whole day. I had been starting to feel like I had some kind of block from actually finishing anything. So it felt really good to finally top something out.

Hopefully it will continue. Brad gets here tomorrow, and the rest of the Newfoundland crew follows sometime shortly after.

A Cry for Help

In recent crosscanadaclimbing blog news, Chief Blogger Dave Stack has admitted that he does not have the grammatical capacity to properly edit his own blog, and has called in reinforcement. 

Introducing your new Editor in Chief:

I promise to stay behind the scenes from now on.... maybe.

-Ed.

Mini Metal and goodbye luke!

There was a really big mountain bike race in Squamish this weekend called the "test of metal", as part of the race related activities there was a "mini metal" kids race. Yesterday I went down to watch Cedar get her race on.

Fierce and determined to win...

At the starting line...

Uh-0h...

Ben gets Cedar to practice her tricks...

After the race me and Ben went into Vancouver to see Luke off who left today to start the long drive back to St.John's.

We met up with Luke in North Vancouver and spontaneously decided to do the Grouse Grind, which is hiking to the top of grouse mountain. We got some props for tackling "one of the hardest hikes in the world" in our sneakers and jeans. It really isnt a very hard hike, that was just what a guy decked out in full trail running gear called it as he past us. we told him all we'd heard was that there was a bar at the top...

Later as Luke was taking his bike off his bike rack he had a little accident involving his finger and his disc brake... Luckily meaghan had her "first aid kit" handy.

Deliciously sterilizing...

Today we got up then said our goodbyes to luke. I picked up some new climbing shoes at MEC and then me and ben spent some time skimboarding before heading back to squamish. Or well ben spent some time skimboarding... I spent some time jumping onto a board then falling.

Tomorrow the plan is to head into the boulders and send everything with my sweet new kicks...because clearly the only thing holding me back was footwear...

Lot's of troublems...

Yesterday I went bouldering with hope and geoff. I went to work on "No Troublems" some more. The first move is the hardest of the whole problem. After spending way too long falling off the first move over and over, (while hope and geoff are waiting for me to give up so we can go get supper) 

I finally stick the first move and get into the moves across the roof.

 I pull through the harder of the roof moves and then just have to reach out to a Jug on the lip to finish the problem. But as my left hand reaches the good hold my feet and my right hand cut loose and I swing off and onto the pads.

 After that we called it quits for the day and went to get sushi. Meaghan came up to visit from vancouver before she heads back to st.john's on monday and we went back to try it again today with her as a pad sherpa but I was feeling sore from yesterday and failed to stick the first move again. I'm not too discouraged because I know now for sure that i can get the problem (though I have yet to try to moves on the kind of scary top out, I dont think they are that hard).  But i've been on it on 5 separate days now so it would be nice to just finish it so i can move on to other things.

Luke has gone into vancouver for the weekend to do some mountain biking.

The forecast is calling for rain this week...but it said that last week too so maybe it wont happen.

Overdue

Ok, I know i have been neglecting the blog, but i've been busy. We've been having a really good time since we got to squamish. We've been swimming, and bouldering and doing some silly roped climbing. Luke has been doing that thing he does where he rides a bike down a hill quickly.

Luke has really been on a rampage with the boulders, he is sending all the classic v4s super quickly. Highlights including, flashing "Sloppy Poppy" V4, making quick work of "Easy in an Easy chair" V4 and "Superfly" v4. He made a mini project of "Viper" V5 and sent it on his second day on it.

I havn't really climbed anything i am too excited about yet. But yesterday i started working on "No Troublems" V9/10 and managed to do all the moves. I'm pretty confident i can do this problem pretty quickly and it was one of my main goals for this trip so I am excited about that.

I spend a few days in the city hanging out with the Me(a)ghans. That was fun, saw Camera Obscura and Jens Lekman which were both really good shows. Went to the beach. Swam in an enchanted river in north van. All good times. Anyway heres some pictures.

Log wars at the lake

"Easy in an Easy Chair" V4

"Wafer Thin" V5

The super awesome problem "Timeless" v4

"The Mantis" V4

"The Cutting Edge" V4

Calgary

Our recently married calgary hosts Dan and Katrina (Dan liked it so he put a ring on it...)

While I was sitting down to write this entry Ben Harnden Composed a Haiku:

Dave stack likes to climb

my dog has fleas and stuff

dave likes dinosaurs

There really wasn't much more to say after that...

Demetridon

There is no such thing as a Brontosaurus. The Brontosaurus was actually a combination of bones from two different Sauropods which was thought to be a new species. The Skull of the so called Brontosaurus was actually that of the Camarasaurus (pictured). The body of the Brontosaurus actually belonged to the Apatasaurus (my favourite dinosaur)

Brontosaurus is the only sauropod in Spellcheck

The Albertasaurus is always the hero in Albertan Museums...

Apparently i have some stiff competition as an artist...

What the fuck!?

Luke committing

While we were bouldering a guy came around the corner and asked if any of us knew how to pop a shoulder back into place. We didn't but I offered to give it a whirl anyhow...

The guys were not impressed...

Sean White making a surprise guest appearance and coming oh so close.

Luke gurning with fancy camera effects/ malfuntions

Big rock was actually a surprisingly good bouldering area...

I'd like to have more time with this line in particular...

Dave stack likes to climb

my dog has fleas and stuff

dave likes dinosaurs

So we arrived just in time to go to bed at Dan (aka D-Nips), Katrina and Ellie's house in wee hours of the morning. We woke up, ate breakfast, got reaquainted and headed to the mountains to climb. We went to the Barrier Bluff located in the Kananaskis. This was the first time we had climbed ropes on the journey.

Dave taking in the horrible view

We climbed all day eating kettle chips and drinking very little water. The routes were super wicked awsome and the rock was not sharp at all. It was all spot climbing and there piles of different features and grades to satisfied any climber. I can't remember any of the names of the routes because my brain was lacking water at the time. But here are some shots.

Dan with his flower covered helmet signed by Alex Huber what a go getter!

Luke pretending that he knows how to climb

The last climb that we did that day was a beautiful line follwed an arete up to an slitly over hanging crack. It was two stars and It was called "Koyaanisqatsi" 11 B

Here is a shot of Dave just getting into the heart of the climb

Dan and dave both sent it with minimal trouble, it was a tough route with plenty of exposure.

Then I dicied that I needed to log some more air miles.

It was a great day of climbing. I have to thank Dan for taking uas out and showing us a beautiful area. This was are first day in the rocky mountains and it felt like we were in a postcard.

On a side note.. here is the animal count thus far

2 Moose

2 Deer

2 Bunnies

1 Squarle

1 Wolf

Tomorrow Dinosaurs

Day 10

We drove from Thunder Bay to Calgary in one day. 2000 k.

Mostly things were flat.

We wouldn't have made it without Jay-Z and Redbull.... mainly Jay -Z.

Days 7 through 9

We had planned on traveling to Toronto on Wednesday to go climbing in the Niagara Glen. But when we awoke to rain and saw that the forecast was calling for it to rain for 4 days straight we decided we'd be better off skipping Toronto altogether. We decided to spend an extra day hanging out in Montreal and then start heading west the next day.

Our entire stay in Montreal was a ridiculous amount of fun and I can' t thank our hosts and their friends enough for showing us a good time.

Also deserving of thanks is Alexa Martin who on our bonus day in MTL had myself and luke (as well as our friends Mark and Kaya) over for "Brunch and Life Advice". Though I think I managed to talk her out of her original advice for me which was "Go back to school then get a job".

Later, I met up with Justin Avery and Samantha Sullivan then we met up with Luke and posse to go to a free jazz show. Justin and Sam had to head home before we actually made it to the bar but the rest of us had a really great time and I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the music.

The next two days were comprised entirely of driving. Not much to say about that.

There was some burping..

And a giant snowman..

Now we are here...

And i am doing this...

Tomorrow we are on the road again all day, then we should arrive in Calgary the next day.

Oh and i think i managed to change the settings so you can comment without signing in or anything... 

Day 6

Ok, so internet connections were tenuous in Montreal and as a result we are a few days behind in the blogging. Sorry to keep y'all waiting.

The last entry left off with plans for supper, wine and sleep, which turned into a lot more wine and a lot less sleep than I had expected. I blame our hosts...

Kendra and Dillon 2/3 hosts

Despite the lack of sleep we still got up early to head out for the boulders, accompanied by our  gracious and gorgeous host Kate (not pictured above).

"Bright eyed and bushy tailed?"

We had a super awesome day bouldering and hanging out at Val-David which is about an hour north of montreal. There are a ton of really classic problems there. Unfortunately our camera battery died very early in the day.

One of the first problems we got on was "La Prue" which is the prow in french... i think...

We both got shut down by it's weird sequence, until on the way out we got beta (advice on how to climb the problem) from some locals who were trying it. Then we both sent it with the better sequence.

Luke on the tricky V4 "La Prue"

Next I worked on a really nice v6 sloper traverse with a local guy name Raphael. I should have finished it  but blew it on the last easy move....twice.

"La Traversee de L'Orque" V6

We did a bunch of other problems we didn't get pictures of due to the battery dying. Luke really is getting strong fast and sent another v4 quickly. I'm looking forward to seeing him send in squamish. I worked a really cool V8 arete for a little while and felt like I could get it but didn't want to concentrate my efforts too much on one problem...that and the guys i was working it with moved their pads away.... and I am a bag of excuses...

One of the last problems I did was a cool v6 that went straight up a face through some big moves on perfect crimps. My finger tips were totally raw and my arms were cooked by the time I started working on it.  I managed to do all the moves separately but just didn't have the juice left to link it together. I was giving up when a couple other people came to try the same problem. I decided to give it one last go and managed to finish it, mainly due to one of the guys reminding me to breathe halfway up the problem.

Raphael on "Louise Classique" V6

Then Luke, katie and I hiked to the top of the cliff the boulders are at the base of to enjoy the view before heading back into town.

"Enjoying the View"

We then headed back to montreal (with a stop for gelato along the way).  Our climbing adventure was followed by a chicken finding and cooking adventure and then more partying. None of which was documented due to the aforementioned battery issues, but that is probably for the best.