AKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAA

Check out this sick video of Fred Rouhling sending the campusy route/problem Akira 9a/b (14.d/15.a). I can't even imagine what it would feel like to do this.

But it does get me very psyched for my next boulder sesh!



www.fredrouhling.com (<-- not so much in English)

Peace,

Z

Pull Over.

I like this picture because it reminds me of the $200 ticket Derus and I got on our way back from Kentucky 2 weekends ago at 1:30 in the morning.

Here's how the conversation went:
"Do you know why I pulled you over?"

"No officer"

"For speeding and going out of the lane (both Derus and I swear we were 100% in our lane the whole time)"

"What are you up to this evening? (Why, do you want to hang out officer)?"

"We are driving back from a climbing trip to Kentucky, and have been driving for 7 1/2 hours."

"Here's your ticket, you're free to go."

Derus: "Oh man, that was intense! How much was it for?"

"Dude, I don't even want to look at it (and didn't look at it until a week later)."

It's cool though i'm going to court over it.

Peace,

Z

Im A Squid!!!!

The Squid, a creature known to most people as something that inhabbits the deep dark depths of the sea. An illusive beast that can not be tamed, or can it?

Well, it may be known to most people as a beast, but to climbers, it is known as the ultimate tool to add ease to your climbing.

I recieved a squid for christmas last year, and for the longest time, just let it sit in my room, doing nothing. I thought that it was a piece of junk, that only wankers used, but boy was I wrong. This fine piece of equiptment is not onlyeasy to use, but very versatile. It can clip up draws, clip up rope, and also, it has a unique feature of being able to take a draw off of a hanger while below a bolt.

It can also be used to "Bat-Climb" up to a bolt. This is done by clipping in direct to a bolt, lowering some slack down, and thenpulling the squid up to your level to clip the next draw. ( Note, this can be done with almost all stick clips.) If you are struggling with a specific section of climb, you can pull yourself up to the next section, by using the pre- clipped draw. This can prove effective, when struggling on a route at military.

Example of "Batmanning"

The moral of the story is, A. Bring your squid, because it provide hours of entertainment, and B. Friends don't let friends be "Batman".

Boulders Hardcore Bagmate Competition

Hey what's up world,

This is Z, and I just got back from the funnest competition of the year. That's right Boulder's Gym Annual Halloween Party. This year it was called the HARDCORE BAGMATE COMPETITION..




Greg on the Men's finals problem. Greg is ridiculously strong. This was given a V8 rating.

Why is it fun?

#1 - Boulder's legendary customized clay holds (made by the legendary Vince)

#2 - It's a competition

#3 - Drinking and Potluck action

#4 - Scarred for life by Seth's costume switch

I went up with 5 of my good friends (a big congrats is in order for Sarah and Greg who made it to finals, Greg almost won!!!). Kelsen ended up taking the win, not unexpectedly.

I competed in the V2 - V4 range, which was really fun, finished like 13 problems. Looking forward to their Spring comp, as well as AR's QontheD!

Photo credit to : Alex Skogen (www.bouldersgym.com)

Peace
-Z

Devil's Lake Gumbys (part 1)

Well, it had been quite a summer, and after a few more trips down to the red, the weather was begining to cool down just a bit. Seeing as the red is 8 hours away from our current location, we have to make due with what wisconsin has to offer. A.K.A. The Dodge, Devil's Lake, Rib Mountain, etc. A day trip had been set to The Lake.

Being the hard worker that he is, zach had to work till 12:30, meaning that we left at about one aclock. We got there at about 3:00, and enjoyed the "nice" hike up the CCC trail. We met up with our friends Lindsay and Dave, along with rachel, who was teaching a class there that morning. We set up a rope on stretcher, hour-glass, and mouse tracks. After climbing these routes, Dave decided that it was about time for him to lead something, so over to Brintons Crack we went...

Sitting atop brintons bluff at sunset, overlooking the lake is quite a sight to see. The sheer beauty of the forest is enough to send chills down your spine. That is until a random man carying a flute come up and obnoxiously starts asking me to take his picturee while he plays his flute. I took the picture, and thought that that would be the end of it, but instead, he decides to serenade the gang, and Dave, while he makes his way up on the sharp end.

Long story short, this man decides that we are going to be best friends. After talking with our group extensivly about his political views, past girlfriends, climbing partners, and favorite climbs, he decides to climb brintons crack. By this point it is almost dark, and we only had one head lamp. He insisted that it would be a quickie, so reluctantly, we let him use our rope.

almost 20 minutes later, he decides that he has had enough, and comes down. We hurry to the top and begin taking gear out, when we are greeted by a friendly Puerto Rican man who wants to climb at the lake. He seemed pretty legit. He explained that he had a 5.4 mm rope, and he intended to pound in spikes at the top, and swing down. In return, we told him that it was illegal to pound in pitons at the lake. He whould have none of it. After 5 minutes of arguing with this man, we finally could proceed with pulling our gear out, and making our way over to the trail.

---TO BE CONTINUED---

Summertime Blues (version 2)

Here's my version of what happened...

So we're on our way to the red with a whole 5 days of climbing ahead of us and we are all stoked as hell!

As we're driving down, I ask Nate to read me off the directions as we go. We reach Indianapolis and take the turn. It's probably about 11pm, and we're all excited except our buddy Sandman, who slept for the ENTIRE trip down.






I'm looking around as is Derus, and we're like yeah this is definitely where we want to go. "Yup I remember that building." So we're all good right?

Derus promptly falls asleep, and I am forced to blast songs I know to stay awake since I am getting mad tired.

87 Miles later I see a sign approaching and I am like "Sweet, here comes Kentucky!"






"Welcome to Illinois"


Are you kidding me...


Seriously...

this is how the conversation went.

"DERUS! We're in f*cking Illinios"

"We are? That's not good."




"NO it's not"

So we turn around, add another 3 hours onto our already delayed late trip. I wake Sandman up several hours later and make him drive (Sandman adventures to be posted at a later date).



We arrive at Miguel's at 8AM, and my buddy Zak is in the parking lot.

"Hey, what took you so long?"

"You don't want to know."

Summer Time Blues (Nate)

In the months following the summer, the temperatures have dropped, and the friction is well, frictiony. Although fall is the time where conditions are optimal, you can't help but miss the warm, muggy, hot, sweat filled days of July spent in the red.

Let me start with a blast from the past...........

Its 5:00 PM on a wednesday night. The intended departure time of 3:00 came and went before we knew it. With the last couple items being stowed in the cars, we took off. (actual departure time was around 5:45)

We reached Illinois by about 8:00. With the big push for Indianapolis in mind, we hung out at the oasis fo like 30 minutes, got some food and once again started on our way. We reached indianapolis at about 10:30. With Zach at the wheel, me in the navigators seat, and sandman sawing logs in the back seat, we felt pretty invincible.

As I stated earlier, I was the navigator for the trip. This was a big test for me, because i had been to The Red a whole slew of times before, but I had never been asked to navigate. Well when you ask a 15 year old teenager to guide you over 4 state lines, you are pretty much asking for trouble.

Ignoring the fine print under the next direction, we took 70 west, instead of 65 south like we were supposed to. Seeing as it was getting to be about 11:00, I was getting tired, and began to nod off in the passenger's seat. Not realizing immediatally that were on the wrong road, we traveled almost 2 hours in the wrong direction. I felt Zach nudge me, and he informed me that we had just crossed back into Illinois.

"Crap" was all I had to say. My actions were inexcusable. so i was informed that i was honorary rope-gun for the rest of the trip. After a four hour detour back to Indianapolis, it was 3:00, and we still had about 4 hours ahead of us. Bummer.

Long story short, the rest of the ride went smoothly, until we tool a wrong turn in Slade, aka the smallest town in Kentucky (pop. 38). After almost putting the car in a ditch, the sandman gave up the weel, and Zac got us to Miguels. Current time in Kentucky 8:00 AM

When we pulled into the parking lot, the first question we were asked was "what, did you guys get lost or something?"