every other orange

 

Matt leading what is actually a super tiny finger crack on Cat Wall. 

Gabe demonstrating the best use of our teeth on Cat Wall. 

 

Here is Mark demonstrating his good belay technique... 

I forgot where we climbed on the first day, but here is a picture of Gabe leading this crazily hard route. 

I managed to do this on the first few moves of my first climb of our first day... doesn't that figure? It wasn't too bad... except when I tried to climb finger cracks. 

I hope that you and mom are having a great time in Budapest! It sounds like a wonderful birthday present ... I'm jealous :) - Sorry I didn't get to talk to you on your birthday, but I left a message at the Lipp's and called back and left another one with Nicole... maybe I will figure out how to call your hotel at some point. I love you so much Cynthia - I wish you all the best for your birthday... and I can't believe that you are 17.

Today Andy, Gabe, Marc and I went to climb in the South Platte. We climbed at this place called Cynical Pinnacle... it was gorgeous. It was crazy...in the sun it was atleast 60... but there was snow everywhere. I guess I no longer live in Michigan :) 

 

 

I was having a lot of fun taking pictures while we were waiting :) ...who knows what this is? 

There was quite the backup on this climb - see all 4 climbers on it right now. It looked like a really fun route, maybe I will do it next time we are there. (I don't remember it's name) 

 

So running into mark today made me think about how big my little climbing community is becoming... so on that note, I thought I would make a little history of my climbing and and all the wonderful people that I have climbed with.

• so it starts... 7th grade camp... with my cabin mates on 'the wall' - a little 60' tall wood wall they had set up at this YMCA camp that every Dexter 7th grader attends. Yes, the beginning of my climbing was one little climb on wood... but it made an impression that I have yet to forget.
• Some number of years later, Dad, Cynthia and the Horwitz boys in this tiny little gym in Hendersonville, NC
• Another year or so, Dad and I went to the equaly tiny Ann Arbor Climbing Gym
• Now we reach High School- Chad and I go looking for the Ann Arbor Climbing Gym only to find that it has recently closed... we instead make the wonderful discovery of Planet Rock!
• Planet Rock now dominates my climbing for a number of years... so we will say from sophmore year to freshmen year at MSU I climbed with a good amount of people there. Sorry if I forget some people. There was ofcourse Jess and two other poeple that I can't yet remember who got to climb for free (i was jealous). Adam, Craig and Adam's ex...whos name will come to me later and i wont be able to believe that I forgot it... Matt, who was always ready for a religious 'discussion' with me, even while climbing. And lastly, jenny, who helped me think up blind fold climbing.
• Grand Ledge!!! (the exclamation points are only to emphasize how much this place sucks) This was my first outdoor climb, which did create a need for more, but will not be counted as actual climbing. Many thanks though to my fellow members of the MSU Outing Club for introducing me to this place.
• Galyans was a good place, free indoor climbing when the weather was crap. Renee was always much better than me, and a huge hippie. When she first met me she asked to see my hands and then exclaimed "We are a Match!"... I'm still not completely sure what she ment by that.
• During the next two years I climbed nowhere but Planet Rock and with no one but Adam about once a month...although there were quite a few months where I did not have money. And then at the end I convinced my mom to climb with me. She and Dad both came once or twice.
• Mike... I am most fortunate to have met Mike. He lived above Adam and invited me to go on my first and then second climbing trip to The Red and then Niagara Glen... the catalyst to my move. Because of him I climbed with Brian, Brian's sister, Rhonda, Anthony (the squirrel), Top, Shannon, this 60 something year old who could still climb 12s, that really good kid and a few other guys and girls whose names I don't remember but faces I will never forget.
• Right before I moved i climbed with Jess and her friend at the climbing gym in ...where ever she lives
• Climb4Life, Salt Lake City- right after my move. This list could get long so I will keep it to only those whose names I remember... Rich, Nikki and Lindsay who made me feel like I was climbing with a group of my best friends. Jess, who I offered sharing my bed with (something that made Dave rather uncomfortable). Ali Rainey, Jen, Mike, Andy, Stephanie and Anne. Katie Brown, Nate Gold and Adam Stack... I would never have known that they were pro climbers if I had just gone to the club with them... but since I did know I could not help but feel incredibly special.
• Sarah and Megan took me on my first trad climb and crack climb just after Climb for life...we visited Little Cottonwood Canyon and then Sarah and i stopped in Vedauwoo on the way home. She also introduced me to Eldorado Canyon and took me on my first multi-pitch (Calypso)
• Jaime was the first Boulderite that I climbed with... I was supposed to do my first multi-pitch with him but accidently slept throught my alarm clock.
• I met Jim at the Spot and after he recovers from his surgery we will hopefully climb again.
• Chris took me to Flagstaff for the first time... but I don't think that he will ever climb again.
• Horsetooth Reservoir! This was a great day- i met Natasha and this other woman who climbs with her daughter and I placed third in their bouldering comp :) I also won this really awesome bouldering pad.
• Mike from climb4life, some of his friends and I went bouldering in Big Elk Meadows, just outside of Lyons.
• Next weekend was a big trip back to Salt lake City. i climbed with Rich in American Fork Canyon and Little Cottonwood then we went with Carter to Indian Creek. That is where we met his sister Lisa(?) and her husband Jason (a really awesome sponsored climber) and their son who is 10 and can climb just about any crack (quite cocky too). After that Rich, Carter and I climbed the North Chimney of Castleton Tower.
• That next week I met Ethan while climbing with Elliott at the Spot.
• Mike, Andy (Climb4Life) and I went bouldering at Mount Sanitas.
• Next Weekend I met Andy and we drove down to Indian Creek again to meet Rich, Carter, Jason, Lisa, Sarah, Lamont, Kevin and Kevin's wife? and David
• Now all of everything is getting meshed together. There was climbing in Boulder Canyon with Ethan and Justin. Toproping on Flagstaff with Justin and Ethan's roommate. Bouldering on Flagstaff with Ethan. Climbing on the Bastille in Eldo with Mike. Climbing the third flatiron with Ethan and Justin. Going back to Castleton with Andy. And tonight I will climb at the BRC with Mark.

There has been so much great climbing and there is so much more to come... I know it :)

A week or two ago I was climbing at the BRC and I overheard this guy talking about The Red and The New... I ofcourse joined in with my, always ready, praise of The Red. ...Well anyways, today I ran into him while I was taking my lunchtime walk and tonight we are going climbing. I love the randomness.

I am now in the library, using one of the public computers because I don't want to go home and use mine. Something is definatly wrong with that... but I don't feel like getting into it yet. It might help if everyone hoped for me that this crap gets worked out soon. I hope to get an actual space of my own soon and am hopefully checking out yet another van tomorrow.

Anyways... I've been having a good time since i last posted. On Wednesday I went up the third flatiron with Justin and Ethan. It was quite easy, but there is almost no protection... the people soloing it seem to have the best idea of how to climb it. We climbed up as the sun was setting and rapelled down in the dark. It wasn't nearly as bad as the Castleton event, but we did get the ropes stuck for quite some time, and the 'trail' down would not have been much fun had I not brought my headlamp....but I did learn my lesson.
Directly after the third I went to the spot to meet up with Andy, Gabe and Natasha. I didn't climb too much because I was already pretty tired, but it was still fun.
Friday and Saturday I felt rather sick so there was no climbing (well I did spend about an hour at the spot). I did finish Memoirs of a Geisha though. It was an excellent book and I would recommend it highly. And...if you have read it and liked it...Geisha of Gion and this other book that I will remember the title of later are also great. I am now reading A Feast for Crows... the very long awaited fourth in A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin.
On Sunday Andy, Gabe and climbed Ant Hill Direct in Eldo. It was a really great climb but it was so freaking cold! We were all cursing the temperature by the time we got off the rock.
And last, but certainly not least, I went for a hike with Justin this morning and just finished climbing at the Spot with Natasha... I am looking forward to more great climbing later in the week :)

Sorry it has been so long- I thought I would share the picture from our campsite last weekend. I had a wonderful time climbing castleton again... but the hike down did not go incredibly well. The sun set as we were rapelling down and it was already pretty dark when we started down the trail. Had it been light outside I would not have been to comfortable hiking down the loose rock at the top, but seeing as I could not see the little trail and my feet were beginning to fade out of sight... I was scared. The trail was lost almost immediately and I used the slipping and almost gaining control method to find my way out of the loose rocks. Thankfully we did find that trail and neither of us flew off of the side. By that time it had become completely dark, neither of us had thought to bring headlamps and the moon was only a sliver. Seeing as we could not even see our feet, keeping on the trail was incredibly difficult...and ofcourse, we lost it. We were not without hope though because we could see the lights of houses off in the distance and knew which general direction to go. After about an hour of plodding on that way, we got to a point where we could no longer see the lights of the houses or castleton. This is ofcourse where I fell and twisted my ankle...several times. Just when prospects were beginning to look bleak, we were both starving and exhausted, we ran into a barbed wire fence. It may not sound that great to you, but seeing as it was easily lifted, we took it as a sign that we were leaving castle valley, soon to be back to our tent. And as it turns out about 20 minutes later we walked up onto the road. We still had a 20 minute hike back to the tent, but we had made it to the road...we were on something that was not easily lost and would definatly lead us to where we needed to go. The rest of the night went well, we both slept like logs and woke up far to sore to climb...especially to climb something that had an approach. Oh, and to add insult to injury, we got a flat tire on the way home :)

All in all, it was a great trip and I will never again go climbing without my headlamp!

I found one more picture with me in it from Climb4Life. This was at the end of the party night (Saturday perhaps). Just before going to one of Salt Lake's 'interesting' clubs.