Road Trippin'

A few weeks ago I embarked on a road trip with 3 friends, 4 backpacks, 4 sets of climbing shoes, a malfunctioning GPS, and 2 cameras in a Mazda Protege for 3 weeks of the Southwest. We had few plans and no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but since a picture is worth a thousand words here is a slide-show worth about 7,367,000 words...


Elissa is an aspiring slide-show professional, and photographer. You can find more of her work here and here and she is starting to blog here. Leave some comments.

Special road trip thanks to Sante Fe's finest The Flying Tortilla restaurant, The Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, the Ouray Ice Festival, the US highway department, bread, peanut butter, and pesto.

More coming later

peace and love

Mike

Climbing

This year has been a big year for me in the sport of climbing. About 12 months ago I started bouldering at a gym near ARI, in March I got to go see the Bouldering World Cup in Saitama, Japan, in April I did a little climbing at Railay Beach in Thailand, in June I went bouldering at the famous Shiobara boulders near Nikko National Park, in November I led my first sport climbing routes at Reimer's Ranch in Travis county, in December I led my first trad climbing routes at Enchanted Rock SP, and last week I got to lead part of a trad route in Zion National Park before heading to the Ouray Ice Festival in Colorado where I took an ice climbing clinic and got to do some climbs in the gorge where I met Steve House a climbing legend.

I have wanted to be a good climber for a while now, it's been and off and on kind of thing throughout college. I would get really excited and climb a lot at the gym, maybe go outside a few times, get pretty strong, then stop climbing only to pick it up again from the beginning a while later.

I can give you all kinds of reasons why, but I guess I just wasn't that into it. Now though, I am not just climbing (pulling myself up a wall) but moving forward in technique and learning how to climb in the traditional sense and protecting myself as I move up the wall which makes everything a little more real. I started trying this type of climbing to improve my outdoor resume but have found that I really enjoy the challenge and the exposure. Now it is not a matter of how difficult the actual moves are, now I get to think about where I will stand to place gear, or how I can get to the next bolt on the wall. It has added a whole new dimension that forces me to climb within my limits in order to safely protect a fall.

Over the next few months I hope to do a lot more climbing and I will keep you updated on those exploits as I move along in the sport. I hope you are all well.


Peace, Love, and Goof Food.


Mike