Of Granite and Amigos

 Scream in Stone

 The crack just kept getting bigger...

 Scott Bennett hanging on a solid flake.

 Clayton, Scott, Torres.

Cheyne contemplating the latest bail.  A month earlier on this same peak, myself and 9 climbers made a rescue attempt.  We were unsuccessful.  I think about Carlyle and Bjorn every day.

 Self portrait on my birthday with Kate's Birthday Girl sash.  Smug face says it all.  

 Golden Eagle attempt with Scott.

 Poince looking good.

 Option number 2...

360 degree view from the top of Fitz Roy

 Schmetterling!  (Butterfly in German)

 In order to increase tourism, build a road where a trail once was.  George W. Hayduke would have been proud to see me pluck more than one piece of flagging.  Fight the RISE OF THE MACHINES!!

 Lago San Martin.

 We attempted to cross the Andes and had to turn back.  Just one valley to the North of El Chalten and completely remote.  Fortunately there was some pasta and chocolate at this Puesto.  We did have to fend off the rats...

 In order to welcome Jens home from AK, Scott and I had a bake off.  Pizza and Banana bread.

These photos are a compilation of the last few months.  The idea is to inspire myself and others.  Now GO CLIMBING!

Joel is in the Tetons climbing and working for Exum Mountain Guides.  Neil is in the Eastern Sierra climbing and working to save the Mountain Yellow Legged Frog.  When the work is over in mid September, we'll unite and climb together.  Until then, keep it tight out there!

Cali with Eric

Van Camp, Tuttle Creek

 South Face of Lone Pine Peak from the Stone House

High on the MSMR, with Mt. Langley behind

(Eric Harz photo)

(Eric Harz photo)

 Eric rides the dike

 The Sea of Granite pitch, where MSMR joins Land of Little Rain

(Eric Harz photo)

 Eric scramblin' on the Wheeler Crest, over the Owens Valley

Wheeler Crest jam Sesh

Kickin' it with Beckey outside Rovana

(Eric Harz photo)

I met Eric in a tiny brick house next to Radio El Chalten in 2008. It was probably raining, or at least pretty windy, so the modest abode was a luxury upgrade from the tent Joel and I shared down the street and across the river. The window leaked badly when it really came down and soon a puddle oozed across the tile, threatening my dry pad position on the floor. Eric grabbed the shower squeegie and corralled the slime out the door, literally saving my ass. Over the next few months, Joel, Eric, Felix, and I became great friends, the kind made by living in a man-cave with two sets of bunk beds, no windows, and plenty of bad weather.

Arriving in Cali for the season, I flipped through my contact list searching potential partners. Eric is a geologist, and a proud new home owner in Santa Barbara, mere hours from my location on the Sierra East Side. As usual, he's psyched to ditch out of SOCAL and find some adventure in the 'pine! I rallied my van as far back as reasonable into the Tuttle Creek drainage and Eric showed up hours after sunset fueled by delicious Olympia!

It's a sandy slog to get back to the South Face of Lone Pine Peak, but it's a scenic slog and we caught up along the way, chatting about California Girls back in SB. We imagined Fred Beckey and Eric Bjornstad doing the same back in '70 when they put up the Direct South Face, a huge route that made his '100 Favorites' list.

Well times have certainly changed, the Michael Strassman Memorial Route went up in 2008 and climbs a wild 'Super Dike' for 500 feet of mind-melting friction along the smooth, white, andecite streak. It's bolted, but definitely not for sport wankin'! After 6 pitches you can rappel or go BIG and continue to the cumbre.

After some quality R&R in SB, Eric and I returned to the desert on the tail of a snowstorm leaving the Sierra nice 'n crispy! After a valiant effort of trying to convince me that Mt. Mendel was the thing to do, Eric conceded and we went rock climbing, in the sun, on the Wheeler Crest. This enormous upthrust of granite forms the Sierra escarpment as you grind up the Sherwin Grade climbing out of Bishop. I'd always been allured by those crazy distant towers, a little push from a friend in Rovana was all it took to get going. After a few hours of sagebrush whacking we excitedly put on rock shoes and scrambled up a wall of incredible red patina while bumping tunes, taking in the huge views, and smiling big! 

Spring

Cody romping J-crack at Lumpy Ridge, Longs Peak in the background

The Book, Lumpy's finest rock

 Rob low on Stoned Oven, Black Canyon, with the South Rim's classic wall behind

 

 Rob sending a tough section on Stoned Oven

  Rob up high on Stoned Oven

Rob wiggles through the Womb Fight, Stoned Oven's final pitch

Roy pulls out the Guenese roof, only in Eldo...