Jingle Bells

Happy Holidays y'all!

Climbing and Parties and Beer, Oh My!

Lots going on back home!

Another wonderful Christmas party at the Gudmand's. In true Christian fashion, the party was one-upped again after he built a climbing wall in the living room. It was fun being able to set problems and see how people would climb them. Amazingly no one got hurt...

Thanksgiving at home was nice and cozy. Nephew Jude was once again the star of the show. He's almost 2 and his words and expressions have quadrupled since I last saw him.

Some family friends got engaged and I had the pleasure of doing an informal shoot with them. Congrats Sarah and Brad!

 I saw some weird looking dogs in our backyard eating all of our shrubbery...

I brewed a beer! It came out more pale than planned but still tastes good enough to drink!

Climbed a bunch too. It's now gotten too cold for climbing routes, but hoping for a few more days of tolerable weather for bouldering. I need to avoid climbing in gyms at all costs.

Car Cooking - Tofurkey Dinner

Ever shoot a turkey carcass with a shotgun? Ever try cooking a tofurkey ball on a gas stove in your car? Want to see what these things look like? Check it out!

The New River Gorge

Had an awesome crew of 8 last week for a bouldering trip down in the New River Gorge in West Virginia. The forecast didn't look promising but we lucked out and had 5 days of decent weather. 

We climbed next to dams, rivers and waterfalls and found all sorts of fun problems, easy and hard, short and tall. All in all an awesome time with amazing friends!

Fall Festivities

Finally made it to Rumney with Koti. Got a bit cold in the afternoon, but we had a blast trying new routes as well as working our old nemesis, Orangahang. Still haven't sent, but I'm not even mad.

Here's a random girl on Predator, one of the most photographed lines in New England.

The annual Gudmand Friendsgiving also went down and was a blast per usual. Great food with great people.

WNEC Reunion

Good times with the college crew last weekend. Rented a lake house and had a blast catching up, playing games, kayaking and plenty of drinking.

Car Cookin' - Pumpkin Fritters

Happy Halloween y'all.

The Leaves Are Falling

Rock climbing!

Camping!

Chilling!

Fundraising!

East Coast Bound!

Hello hello hello. Where have I been?

Well Boulder was awesome. I was able to see former colleagues Rob and Jamie which was long overdue. Then I spent some time catching up with Ariel. 

Then I drove to Denver and spent some time with Sebastian. The Burning Man camp had a get-together which was super fun. Many of them I don't see outside of the event so it was fun catching up in a less crazy environment. 

Then on my way to Wisconsin, Saturn Jr. had its first milestone: 100,000 miles! In July I bought the car with 92,000 miles on it so it's safe to say that I've fully broken it in. 

Then I spent a day in Madison with Jenna. We had a great time catching up, grabbing some tasty food and riding bikes around the city.

Then I drove 17 hours straight home, arriving on Friday at 6:00 AM. It's now Sunday night and I'm still trying to catch up on sleep but very excited to be home for a couple months.

San Juan to Black Canyon to Boulder

My good friend Sebastian met me in Moab for a little camping adventure. We drove an hour out of Moab to a road that led straight to a canyon. The road then continued down into the canyon. At the bottom we drove to a junction where the canyon met up with the Green River. There we found a beautiful campsite. Huge firepits surrounded by massive cottonwood trees. We spent the day walking along the canyon floor, skipping rocks, exploring boulders and telling kayakers to fall into the water when they told us they were hot. All in all an awesome adventure.

The next day Sebastian left and I found myself in an all-too-familiar situation where I need to decide what the hell to do. The plan was to stay in Utah for another week. Before you know it I'm driving across the border into Colorado. I realize I'm sick of driving on I-70 and need to see more of Colorado. A couple hikers recommended the San Juan Mountain Range so I made my way there. I found a nice 12 mile loop called the Sneffels Highline Loop just above Telluride. The colors of the aspens were stupendous! It crossed streams, ridgelines, basins and waterfalls. At night it dropped to 20 degrees, but the days were perfect. 

There was another hike in the San Juan range that I wanted to do, but it would have taken 5 hours to get to it (these huge mountains make travel long and arduous). Instead, I peeked Google Maps and realized the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park was only 1.5 hours away (to be honest, I didn't even know it was a national park). 

So I headed there, camped outside the park and spent a full day exploring all the nooks and crannies this place had to offer. Even more Fall colors from the aspens, scrub oak and other deciduous life glowed splendidly in the morning light. The fish were jumping out of the river catching whatever insects laid on the river surface. The canyon walls were so unique. Super steep and narrow. Beautiful patterns formed between the dark gneiss and schist with the stronger and lighter pegmatite quartz. 5 stars.

The Painted Wall. Awesome designs all over.

Now I'm in Boulder trying to see as many people as possible. I just grabbed a drink with former manager and coworkers Rob and Jamie. Haven't seen them since I worked for United over 2 years ago. It was great catching up.

More to come!

Cast Iron Pizza

Debut car cooking episode with the new Saturn!

And a nice sunset, moonset combo over the North Six Shooter Tower in Indian Creek. You can also see Jupiter just above the sun in the first photo.

Canyons and Climbing

Oh boy howdy Moab is grand! After a week in this area I still find myself awestruck by every view.

I met up with Garrett (whom I met in New Zealand) and some of his friends he met climbing in City of Rocks. Unfortunately we had rain most of the weekend. We made the most of it by hunting for waterfalls and drinking beer in a hot tub. 

On Sunday it wasn't raining, but most of the rock was still wet. So one of our few options for climbing was at The Crackhouse. This cave can be found by driving an hour out of Moab, with the second half of the drive on a super rough road that put my Saturn to a serious test. Luckily it made it and it was worth it. This cave contains an 85 foot long roof crack... Something I've never seen before. We had a great day working on different sections of the crack and thoroughly got wrecked. 

Next day had more rain, but I needed a rest day anyway. I checked out Canyonlands National Park, which I've wanted to see for years. It was a wonderful day hiking and seeing as much as I could fit in.

Puebloan granary

The Green River cutting its way through the landscape

I then headed to Indian Creek, the #1 place I've wanted to climb at this year. I found some free camping on another super rough road that once again almost took out the Saturn. In the morning I headed to the main parking lot to find a climbing partner. There was a group of 3 guys that gladly took me in and we headed straight to the ultra-classic climbs.

The climbing in the Creek was everything I dreamed it would be and then some. The splitter cracks go forever and they are pure fun. Most of the climbs were between 80 and 120 feet tall which really tested the endurance. We spent 2 days climbing all sorts of cracks and having a really good time, all with perfect weather. 

This climb below was the longest single pitch climb I've ever done. It was 140 feet long and took all sorts of gear and even some nuts. I reached the top with exactly one cam left on my harness, out of breath and full of smiles.

Even the hike out was awesome, with the sun setting behind the six shooter towers.