Rain Rain Go Away

So I climb with this girl Keri I know, and I really like her.  She is down to earth, and a lot like me, so we get along quite nicely.  We went out to Pointless Crag today down in Ririe, Idaho, and got a few climbs in, we got rained out, which was a bummer, but it was still nice to get out regardless!  I am finding it easier to onsight 5.10s and one hang 5.11s, which is super exciting.  I feel like my head game has gotten so much better over the past year and a half, so now all I need to do is get stronger lol! Anyways, here's some photos from today.

Hanky Panky

I worked on this climb for a couple of weeks now called Mr. Hanky.  I nicknamed it Hanky Panky because...I don't know, I just did.  Well yesterday, on my birthday, I finally sent the climb! It's a 5.12a/b (Dean keeps downgrading the climbs at Southpark, so I never know what anything is anymore), so I was pretty stoked!  The only other 5.12b i've sent is Dark Justice last year.  Hooray for birthday sends!

My Life Is Beautiful.

My life is beautiful.  It is full of all sorts of excitement.  I look at where I was two and a half years ago, and I am so very grateful for where I am today.  I did not think that my life was beautiful back then.  I felt as though I had hit rock bottom.  After time passes though, I realize how curious life is.  It will kick you down just to pick you back up again.  I am starting to realize that good things fall apart so that great things can come together.  I don't know who said that quote, but it is one I have been living my life by.  If we never have hard times, how are we to appreciate all of the good ones?  Life, no matter what it throws at you, is worth living.  It's wonderful.  God knows who we are.  And he wants us to be happy.  They key to happiness is obedience and faith in his teachings.  If we trust in him, fully, he will help us along the way. He knows better than we do what we need.  Just remember that, and everything else will fall into place.

The City of Rocks

So this trip was AWESOME.  We drove three hours to The City of Rocks friday afternoon, and stayed until saturday afternoon.  The whole trip was just overall fun.  We got lots of climbs in, had good company, and even saw some cows being herded.  Such a good trip.

On our way there, we ran into a ton of cows!  They were in the middle of the road blocking traffic, and I swear they were everywhere! I've never seen a sight like that before lol.

I got to ride up with this cool guy :) Joe Crane is so rad. Seriously.  Everyone should aspire to be like him.  

When we got to the city, we went straight to bath rock.  We got some good climbing in, and just had a really great time!

(all of our trad gear!)

(the group)

(about to climb Colosseus)

(group again)

We then went to find a campsite, but found out that all of them were full! So we drove out to the BLM land, and parked.  We built a fire, ate some dinner (soup for me, hot dogs for the rest, and a whole tuna pasta salad for joe lol.).  After that we all talked and then finally headed to bed in our tents, where we just ended up talking more anyways lol. I'm not much of a camper, but this was probably my favorite night camping by far.

(fireeeeeee)

(I slept in the orange tent)

The next day we woke up pretty early (like 6am, yikes!) and the group had made french toast and bacon for breakfast.  I don't even make that when I'm home, so I was super impressed lol.  Then we headed out to the Morning Glory Spire to get some climbing in before Joe left that day to head to Boise.

(Joe and I :)  )

(obligatory selfie haha)

(view from the Morning Glory Spire)

We then headed down to Elephant Rock, where we did Rye Crisp.  I didn't have the right gear, so it was sketchy leading it on trad, but I made it work and ended up sending it!  We met some 70 year old men there that free climbed the thing after us! So scary!!  Then we went up to Decadent Rock on the Upper Breadloaves and got in two climbs there.

(city view)

(the group posing at Elephant Rock)

(legit old men!)

Overall, it was such a fun trip.  I was bummed Joe had to leave early, but other than that everything else was awesome! I get to go back to the city September 13 for the Idaho Mountain Festival, and i'm so stoked to go back!

Here's my tick list of climbs I did:

Morning Glory Spire Fall Line 5.10b SENT (a fun sport route that I sent! I tried this one last time I was at the city but failed to send it)
Morning Glory Spire Skyline 5.8 ONSIGHT (fun trad route! epic view at the top)
Bath Rock Rollercoaster 5.8/9 ONSIGHT (A fun trad crack)
Bath Rock Private Idaho 5.9 ONSIGHT (fun classic sport route)
Bath Rock Coffee and Cornflakes 5.10a ONSIGHT (this route had the highest first clip ever! I scrampled up about 30 feet, and then was supposed to climb even further to reach the clip! I ended up stick clipping from the sketchy ledge, which was scary!)
Bath Rock Colossus 5.10c SENT (last time I was at the city I tried this and sketched out at the top.  this time I conquered it though!)
Bath Rock Loch Ness Monster 5.11c (this was a fun climb with a cool finger crack at the top!)
Decadent Wall Kibbles and Bits 5.11a (sketchy first half, thin second half.   hardest climb I tried this trip in my opinion)
Decadent Wall Jay Goodwin Route 5.10a (fun 10 with lots of good crimps! really run out at the top though)
Elephant Rock Rye Crisp 5.8 ONSIGHT (fun trad route.  I didn't have the right gear though so I sketched out a little)