chossmonkey.com Blog

My wife is always asking why I want to go out and climb on obscure, dirty, loose cliffs. All she wants to do is go climb splitter cracks in Indian Creek and do long routes in the mountains (bless her for that!). It’s a good question though, as I’ve long realized that I love exploring and I often prefer to climb at areas that are off the beaten path and less populated, rather than querying up with the masses in areas like Rifle. In the latest issue of Rock & Ice, editor Jeff Jackson, sums it up perfectly. Check it out on page 10 in the January 2008 issue (#166).

Tomorrow I have the day off and I’ll be heading off to the choss by myself instead of finding a partner to go to Rifle or to clip bolts at the Puoux, a local roadside (I-70 to be exact) crag. I know that I’m looking forward to poking around the many crags and side canyons of Glenwood Canyon. Maybe I’ll return to one of the many project areas that I’ve begun work on, or maybe I’ll venture into an area that  I’ve never explored before. Regardless of where I end up, I know I’ll appreciate the choss that I find, and that’s just the way I like it.

Be sure to check out Jeff’s editorial, it’s classic.

I finally had a few inches of snow on my deck yesterday morning although it’s wild, and disconcerting, that on Monday and Tuesday we were slacklining and climbing in t-shirts, shorts, and bare feet. Happily for us here in the mountains, it looks like we’re going to get a good storm this weekend which will hopefully fully propel us into winter sports season. Many of our ice climbs in this area depend on snow melt so with little or no snow, there’s little or no ice. Thinking back to this time last year, I already had a half dozen or more good ski days with a few ice days thrown in for good measure. And, that’s with spending last Thanksgiving in Indian Creek and only going out for easily accessible winter activities, none of this hiking for hours for a pitch of ice. So, for the next few days I’ll be praying to the snow gods and doing some ritualistic snow dance or something to try to help the snow flakes fall. In the meantime, before it snows, I may have a chance to finish up some climbing projects that I started in the spring and never finished. Such is the dilemma of deciding what to do when you live where we do.

I always find it interesting how the mainstream media reports climbing. Typically, you end up with El Cap climbers getting described as “hikers” or a story about a “free climber whose grips broke and broke his clips that attached him to the rock.” So, it was with some interest that I overheard an NPR interview with Chris Sharma on my way to work one day. The interview, with additional photos and video, is available online.

Here’s a few pictures and a short video from our Thanksgiving Day run down Glory Bowl on Teton Pass outside Jackson, Wyoming. Enjoy.

Patogonia’s blog, The Cleanest Line, has a great post titled, “Dirtbag Fitness.” I looked at the quiz at Outside Online and realized that I’ve very much in the middle. I do know what my VO2 max is and I race competitively, but I’m also very much on the other side of the perspective. I love getting up early to read and pray before working out in the morning and the whole experience of going climbing is often more important than the moves on some route. It’s funny because I “kind of” like racing and I certainly do a fair bit of it, but I tend to hate training. I’d rather just go play in the mountains and consider that to be my training. It drives my wife nuts because she always reminds me how much better I could do in races if I “properly” trained. But, I also know, that I took a long break from competitive racing because I felt burned out from that life after competing in college track and cross country. So, it’s today that I feel great about enjoying the experience because it keeps me fresh mentally for races because I know I’m having fun – which is what it’s all about. I think the idea of “dirtbag fitness” touches on this and even embraces this idea – it’s not all about campus board workouts, interval sessions, and how many laps you do; it’s about having a good time and getting out the most. I keep a daily workout log of all of my workouts, but instead of focusing on recording how hard I climbed, I mostly keep track of the number of days climbed in a year (115 to date, by the way). I’ve discovered that what motivates me more than anything, is getting out rather than pushing the grade or completing some tick list. Getting outside, exploring, and feeling some exposure is what really fills my tank and gives me the energy in my day to day life.

Winter just doesn’t seem to be coming. It’s November 20th, and we’re still bouldering in t-shirts at 6500′ elevation until dark. Can’t complain when we’re getting out as much as we are, but I’m really jonesing for winter to kick in. To frustrate things further, our Indian Creek plans for Thanksgiving have been changed due to a forecast that is calling for highs in the mid-40s and lows under 20 at night. With the hope of a good storm on the way, we made plans for Jackson, Wyoming, only to have the 8-12″ potential storm turn into a dusting. Bummer!
Here’s a couple photos from today, bouldering at Redstone with my high school climbing class.

Coming soon, a trip report about our many follies on Disco Inferno in Zion National Park. Team Splitter Choss shows how to get it done and how not to do it. It’s coming soon, I promise!

Courtesy of one of my fine high school students, comes this photo of me, reputedly on a first ascent of a crack. I can’t say how classic it may or may not be, but it was certainly a “hairy” lead.

In addition to climbing, I’m a big runner. Running is probably the sport that I’m best at, although my running skill had nothing to do with this photo. This fall I went with photographer David Clifford on a short trip to take some climbing and running photos and the photo below made it on the cover of Trail Runner magazine. It was a fun trip and some of the climbing photos will appear in National Geographic Adventure and the Patagonia Europe catalog. It’s a neat honor to appear on a magazine cover, although now I’m sure to feel the wrath of friends, which has already begun with a new nickname, the “Cover Girl.” Yeah, sweet.

Typically, putting up a new route takes some time. Last Friday, I set a possible new personal best – establishing a new route in less than an hour, including cleaning, bolting and sending via rope solo. The climb makes use of three bolts at the bottom before leading to natural gear placements and the top. Quickly Funky, at 5.7 or 5.8 was born. In establishing Quickly Funky, I didn’t realize that the 3 initial bolts enabled you to traverse right to another climb I established this fall, Chunky Monkey. So, in creating Quickly Funky, I inadvertently created a third climb on the face, that climbs the first three bolts of Quickly Funky on the left, and the last two bolts of Chunky Monkey on the right. It’s probably the best of the three climbs and earned the name, Funky Monkey.

Why the story? Because later that night I was telling my wife about my quick and funky adventure when the 80s classic Funky Cold Medina came up. Of course, you can watch the video on YouTube, which we both found incredibly enjoyable. So, after a long story to set it up, here’s Tone Loc, in full 80s glory:

“So what exactly are we climbing today?” Bob asked in the parking lot of Safeway. I neglected to fully inform Bob what we were climbing today and last night some friends had a good chuckle when he told them we were climbing the Mudwall in Glenwood Canyon… Read on with my guest blog at SplitterChoss.com.