The Summer is Gone

Well, I haven't posted on here in a while. I guess I have just been getting lazy. I had a pretty good summer of climbing this year. Climbed some hard routes and did more trad climbing than ever before.

I had a bad fall on Yamnuska doing the route Bottleneck 5.8. I grabbed a hold that decided it didn't want to be a hold anymore. I ended up with a slight concusion, injured tailbone, and a hyperextended tendon in my heel.

I recently had the time and interest to put together a video from footage that my friend Robin and I shot of us on Yamnuska. We climbed the route Grillmair Chimneys 5.6. Here is the video:



Yam Project from MikeG on Vimeo.


 I plan on taking it easy from climbing for the month of November. Then will start doing some training again in December to get ready for our annual trip to Red Rocks, Nevada. 

Climbing!!!!!

Wow, I have definitely been slipping when it comes to updating this blog. I've also been getting lazy when it comes to taking videos and pictures. I guess I've just been busy. Got a new job a little while ago. Also, that time off with my shoulder injury kind of made me forget about my drive for updating my blog etc.

Anyway, I've been trying to get outside and climb more! Yesterday,  my friend Claire and I were going to go out to Lake Louise to climb. We soon discovered that the further we drove west the worse the weather got. We ended up turning around and checking out a place that neither of us had been to before. We went and checked out Cougar Canyon. I thought it was quite a pleasant place! There are some fun routes and a good variety of climbs. Comparing the Crowbar Crag to Poolside or Cosmology.... it's hard to believe they were all at the same "crag". The weather was good, the routes were fun. I really enjoyed it.

I climbed a few routes - my favourites being at Cosmology crag. I onsighted Redshift 5.10b - a really cool long route with multiple cruxes that I highly recommend. I was also able to onsight Outer Limits 5.12a. That was a prett sweet onsight. I was extremely happy to top that one out first try. There were a couple of dicey spots but it all came together! The route has fairly descent handholds but the feet aren't always the best.

I wish I had pictures or video but alas - I don't.

Till next time.

Recovering From Injury

A few weeks ago I was route setting in the gym and messed up my left shoulder. I went to the doctor who believes that I tore my rhomboid (the muscle between the shoulder blade and spine). It's an injury I've never heard of a climber getting before but I suppose it doesn't seem to far fetched either. I've been icing it and "taking it easy" for the last 3 weeks or so.....

Workin the Proj and a Climbing Trip

I started working on a new project out at Barrier Mountain on saturday. It's called Kiwis Fly (5.12d). It's a pretty sweet route with a tough crux. I just worked it for the first time on Saturday and then returned on Monday for some more. On Monday I was able to get all the way to the crux in one go which felt pretty good. The new guide book Bow Valley Sport Climbs says to cut left at the roof (crux) but my beta goes straight over - cutting way to the left seems a bit off route to me. Here is a picture of my hand after getting owned at the crux.

My fingers were bleeding quite profusely but I just kept chalking 'em up and and kept climbing. It seemed to stop the bleeding after a while. I think I'll be able to do this route. It's just a matter of time. 

On a completely different topic. I am gonna be going to Skaha for 4 days. Should be a blast. I will mostly be focusing on onsighting, which is what I usually do when I go on a climbing trip. So, we'll see if I send anything awesome. 

I'm going with a bunch of people that I recently met at the climbing wall. I haven't done that very much (tagged along with people I don't know very well on a climbing trip) although I've had people tag along with me before. It should be an interesting time. 

A Short Post

This isn't about climbing so much, but I'm graduating from university! That's pretty exciting. I'm gonna have an engineering degree. I majored in civil engineering with a minor in structural engineering.

Hopefully I'll get a decent job in the near future.

I was just thinking tonight that after I get a job I would like to purchase one of these:

http://www.toolnut.com/Bosch_11536C_1_36_Volt_Lithium_Ion_Hammer_Drill_p/11536c-1.htm

Maybe contribute to the climbing community a little bit in the future. In the mean time I'm thinking this summer maybe I'll borrow a drill and start the learning process.  

That Guy

So, I was thinking today about my recent climbing adventure at White Buddha. I realize that I was dangerously close to being "that guy". I had just come down from doing my project (Yay!) and I was kinda just sitting there watching these other climbers trying to do a boulder problem that (I think) I had done before. I was tempted to go over there, strike up a brief conversation, and then give the problem a try - assuming of course that I would crush it and may even be helping them out by showing them some beta. Then I realized that that would be (pardon my french) a real dick move. So, I didn't do it. But realized that I was pretty close to being that guy.

It reminded me of this blog post from a couple of weeks ago. It is a pretty good blog post and I recommend reading it. It's good for a short laugh until you start seeing yourself in the various climber personalities that he talks about.

I remember when I started climbing - watching