Destroying Words with Wayward Thought

 

Me and ‘dem boyz’ (consisting of Kevin ‘Tex Richman’ Erickson, Justin ‘Waterfalls’ Lockhart, and Forest 'Foresto Digitation' Collins) have been humping it out to Smith for the last four weekends in a row.  The first weekend we were all like, ‘Fuck yeah!  Smith rules!  We’re coming back every weekend!!’, this attitude continued into the third weekend, and then by the fourth weekend we were all still super psyched but also in desperate need of a weekend in which we weren’t compelled to get up, drive five hours, and then try really hard on our projects.  



There is a thin line between flacid and erect psyche.  We were in luck because the weather surrounding our beloved home crag cleared out like a hot yoga studio after a chipotle burrito fart.  Blue bird, slight breeze, PERFECTION.  MWAHAHAHAHAHAA!

 I love travelling because it takes you to new places, exposes you to different people, cultures, food, rock, blah blah blah...but what I really enjoy about being away from home, is that first day back at home when everything kind of settles into place and you realize this is where you want to be and where you truly belong.  I had that light hearted feeling this past weekend and I’m still kind of buzzing on it. 

The parking lot resembled that of a cattle ranch feeding trough, it was a shit show as usual.  However, as soon as I pulled into the satellite parking lot a car left and ‘ta-daa’ we had a spot!  The hike was miserable after the morning’s run and I couldn’t shake the feeling that I might climb like an invalid sea monster on sleeping pills. 

It’s always awesome to show up to your home crag and see friends.  Andrew Hou had been there all morning and was really close on his project Technorigine.  I showed up, he strapped his shoes on, and before I could start my warm up he was clipping the chains.  NICE!  Good energy right out of the gate.  To my surprise the warm up was insanely easy, the friction was good, the rock was cold but not too cold, and more importantly dry.  I floated, literally, I felt light, dialed, and my footwork felt stable and effortless.  These are the kinds of moments I live for as a climber (or a kayaker, or runner, or snowboarder, or mountaineer, or ice climber, or artist, or writer or etc. etc.).  I was psyched but also still doubting my strength.  I felt so tired still, but in retrospect I think feeling tired is what gave me that relaxed confidence.  It’s kind of hard to explain. 

Okay, the warm up is one thing, but let’s get to the real fitness check.  I tied in for Chronic and again floated the bottom half, but got nervous in the crux and over-gripped a bit nearly coming off at the redpoint crux.  I kept it together but was way too pumped to nail the ending moves and I gave up and fell just short of the jug.  Okay, I thought, that wasn’t bad, but I can climb it better and I was feeling less fatigued.  I rested a bit and then fired it my next go feeling even stronger and lighter than the previous attempt.  That’s the way I like to climb.  I was psyched and knowing that Chronic had felt that good I decided to get on Flatliner and go for the redpoint burn.  I climbed well into the ledge, rested as much as I could and then climbed into the last rest before the crux sequence.  I made it to the crimp/pinch rail with little effort and moved up snagging the gaston, unfortunately I sagged pretty hard here and while I was trying to get a better grip just came off the wall.  I still feel as if I have a lot of work to do in order to send this last sequence on link, and yet if things fall perfectly into place on any given day, it will go, and hopefully feel easy. 

It’s hard to cope with the fact that perfect days like this one are fleeting and will never be the norm, and really as much as we lament this fact it also is the reason behind why these days are so good.  It was getting darker and I had the energy for a few more but knew I only had time for one.  So I chose my favorite route lately, Californication.  I love this route.  Its long, it has several cruxes that are all completely different, it has amazing movement, cool holds, and great rests.  It’s just a sweet journey up the center of the wall and you get a chance to really work on breathing, resting, and punching it when you have to.  As a warm down it felt amazing.  It was just the cherry on top of the proverbial sundae of a perfect Saturday.  Actually the cherry on top was being able to dip my deluxe bacon cheeseburger in a pool of ranch before every bite.  That was perfect. 

Sunday was just as beautiful as Saturday and even a bit warmer.  I took my sweet ass time in the morning making sure I would have energy to burn for a nice long Sunday afternoon session.  I was re-energized after all the successful fitness checks from the day before and I knew it was time to start getting on the projects.  I feel as if I have done so much at little si, but I still have SO many things to do.  The project I’m most excited about right now is black ice (or vanilla ice, depending on how you climb into it).  I’m currently trying Vanilla Ice in order to get the extension wired for attempts on Black Ice.  This is one of the better extensions at World Wall and you get everything and the kitchen sink thrown at you.  There is a heinous technical dihedral section with pinches and crimps, then some monkey climbing on incuts to a huge incut jug, then more power tech climbing on sweet textured holds for the left and slopey untextured holds for the right hand.  You are kind of climbing between two different worlds, a black streak and a tan streak glide their way up the wall and you’re stuck fighting your way between them, it’s AWESOME!!  The last boulder problem guarding the chains is a cool slopey rail that you have to arm wrestle with to get to some victory jugs.  Anyway, that was the goal for the day but the wall was harboring some mank from the mornings sun bath so it made the first crux very hard.  I tried it once and fell and decided to take a rest.  All the homies showed up and I snapped some photos of everyone crushing.

I tried Vanilla Ice a couple more times and came close to a one hang but there was a small sidepull that ypou have to yard on pretty hard that had some seepage and I came off pulling on it up to the last rest.  It was a great day again, and again it was getting dark and the not only the day but my weekend was coming to a slow close.  And of course, I decided to do Californication for the warm down, but this time I chugged a pint of Montucky’s best and playfully made my way up the route with Waterfalls and Tex heckling me the entire way.  I almost fell off from laughter pulling over onto the slab before the Abo chains, it was great.  We hiked out with headlamps and high hopes of returning next weekend.  It doesn’t look good in terms of dry weather, but Little si has its secrets.