Alpine Lake Iceberg

There was a short blurb in Urban Climber(yes I read the tabloids) this week about Leavenworth as a destination. The picture by Steven Gnam(his blog is worth a look) below along with another of Steve Dimmit on Pimpsqueak were part of the article. Anyone been on this or know where it's at?

May the Fourth Be With You

What better way to celebrate May the Fourth Be With You and Cinco de Derby than a few quality days in Leavenworth. This perfect storm of holidays also happened to coincide with my first trip to Mountain Home, which I have to say was pretty great. Lots of good quality problems in all ranges and a total change of scenery from Icicle. The problem of the day there for me was the low ball V4, Barn Door Arete. A great mix of core tension and a lot of figuring out what is going to work for you. It’s fat guy bouldering at its best which is why it’s right in my wheelhaus, in fact I will claim that I own that wheelhaus. Other notables for next time would be getting down to the South Seas as well as Darth Maul, which saw some good sends but wasn’t in the cards for me. “It’s a bloody hard V4” - Blue

We also made a short stop at Geronimo, the now famous Jessica Campbell problem from Western Gold.(If you haven’t seen this yet you should download it. There are some slow sections but overall it’s quality boulder porn in our backyard) Blue and Gabe both made quick work of it which is impressive to see(didn’t get a single vid of the sends but again Western Gold if you fancy). I struggled on the start but finally found a way up to the high slopers and touched the second to last hold. It didn’t’ go but I this along with Obesity are my 2 top projects for 2012. A lackluster session at The Sword not being able to pull off the ground to start Off The Couch rounded out the day

Sunday started with a Seattle reunion breakfast at The Sleep Lady and ended with some low quality flailing on the new washed out boulders. In between we hit the Egg boulders like Tina Turner on a hung over Saturday in the 70s. Smokestack Lightning, The Weather Report, Jerry Garcia and a lot of warming up went down. The Weather Report is pretty sweet and a great fat guy problem at V3. I blew my tips on the start hold of JG which is to say I touch them a few times. Look for a video of JG going down like power windows later in the week. The washed out boulders are pretty sweet. The  V4/5 with a medium throw outside the Lion’s Den will be a good problem to come back too . The jump start V1 to its right is an instant fat guy 3 star classic with a nice shoulder move to a good top out.

Great weekend, great people, some not too bad weather and as much fat guy bouldering as this kid could handle. Maybe the only thing that kept me sane with the ladies out of town.  Now on to the pictures you ogling monkeys…

 

Leah on Darth Maul

Leah, On and off the top of Darth Maul

Blue, Barn Door Arete

Gabe, Geronimo

Leah, Geronimo

Leah, Joe's Arete (I think)

Blue making sure Jerry Garcia doesn't fall over.

Truc, Smokestack Lightning I

Truc, Smokestack Lightning II

 

Truc, Smokestack Lightning III

Truc, Smokestack Lightning IV

Cheeky Seattle Smack Down Top Out

Western Gold April 22nd

New film coming at the end of the month that looks to have some Northwestern granite showcased.

Spring is in the Air

The NW season is just around the corner so it's time to slim up, train like Amtrak and amped up for the Spring. A little something to kick start the week.

Is 2 years old, too young to start training?

I often wonder if my daughter will like climbing when she grows up. Will she become enthralled in soccer and never care about the sport that occupies my free time to obsession. How much can or should you push your children in a certain direction? Apparently there are no limits. I like to think V will one day out climb her old man, in fact I would imagine that won't be too hard by the time she is ready. I do however think that my wife would put a Viking axe in my forehead if I turn our basement into a Slavic training center next year like the chap in the video did.  I can't imagine this kind of work out at age 2 is good for your body but it's makes one hell of a video to start your Friday.

Baby V climbs V5 at age 9... months

By the looks of this photo you might think this was taken at SBP but we weren't fooled here at MCPOD. You can tell by the heavy chalk cloud and the dingy lighting this is Stone Gardens Ballard. That is just one strong baby getting her Sunday pull on... and we aren't talking diapers in this case.

And the Oscar for "Best Idea for a Humor Post" goes to Becca for "Have V get on a hold so we can show everyone how easy the grades are at SG"

Day also picked up "Best Tag in a Supporting Humor Post" for "Dave Kimber"  

Sam was nominated in 2 categories but failed to take home an Oscar this year.

“You’d have to be blind, deaf, and dumb not to know what you’re getting yourself into, so if there’s blame, blame yourself.”

Dear creator of the sit start 5.5: WTF? Seriously? Brilliant
PS: Unless you are an Ewok this was a waste of tape.
PSS: If you are an Ewok let me know I have always wanted to meet one.