Easter

We had a fun short trip for Easter weekend. Friday morning Casey and I packed up our car and made our way southwest. We decided to stop and check out Gunlock Reservoir on our way to Black and Tan because the pictures we had seen of it were beautiful! The lake was pretty, but unfortunately the water was low enough that there wasn't any on the falls. Kind of disappointing (and gross with people's garbage left everywhere!) but we are definitely planning on going back when the falls are in. 

Next on our agenda was Black and Tan! It was surprisingly cool there on Friday evening. I was expecting the hot St. George weather we have grown used to these past few weeks, but I ended up in 7 layers. Chilly wind! We climbed a few fun warm ups and then Casey hopped on Da Riddler.

Some kids on the momentum youth climbing team came and joined Casey on the route. They were a fun, enthusiastic group! And this is the only picture we got of anyone climbing. It sure would be nice to have friends joining us so I could exercise my photography muscles! ;)

 Our traditional climbing trip dinner. Big, fat, juicy, beef and cheddar hot dogs. Mm mm mmm!














Casey sent the route the next morning and then we decided to go climb on the Sumo Wall at Welcome Springs. Can I just say how much I love the fact that it actually looks like a Sumo's head!! I probably could have kept myself very amused and entertained just staring at the rock for a long time!
It was fun.
We realized our route psych and endurance still has a little ways to go before our road trip this summer...but we are well on our way!!

Here We Come!

As a first grade teacher, there is a lot that goes on between the months of August and June.  There are so many wonderful, challenging, and rewarding experiences, but it can be totally exhausting! Thankfully there's a little something I love called SUMMER VACATION!! And it is coming up soon baby!
This year I am especially excited because Casey and I are gearing up for a ROAD TRIP!! A month and a half of freedom on the road. Climbing, beautiful scenery, warm sunshiney weather, only showering once (or twice) a week, camping....I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!
As soon as school gets out on May 25th we will be moving my school stuff to my new school and then hitting the road. We're talking Priest Draw,AZ , Maple Canyon,UT, City of Rocks/Castle Rock,ID Yellowstone,ID/WY/MT, Wild Iris,WY and then some more Utah awesomeness. Nothing too exotic, but exciting nonetheless! We don't have a strictly set schedule, we're just going to do whatever our hearts desire. And the countdown has begun!!
In the meantime, I have spring break this week and we will be heading south for some desert sport climbing. We're getting into the groove of this rope climbing business. Unfortunately with only 2 people, both attached to a rope, there aren't a lot of photographing opportunities. Hopefully we'll be able to snap a few to share.
Happy Easter everybody!

Barf and More Sends for Tommy

So last week was my spring break from school.  This means non-stop climbing for a week right? Well unfortunately I'm still nursing a finger injury so I felt like I at least needed to take it somewhat easy.  The plan was to go to Black and Tan on Monday then Joe's Thursday through Saturday. On Monday I did make it out to Black and Tan with Jens for some roped climbing.  It was fun, but I definitely have a long way to go to be able to climb anything significant on a rope.  I am loving the new challenge though.  On Thursday I was feeling completely psyched to be at Joe's.  My finger was feeling better than it had in a while and I was excited to try out some new problems.  I sent the Angler (V2) second try! Yay! Then we hiked around looking for various problems.  I was excited to check out the Accordion and Moment of Truth only to find a ten foot sheet of ice covering them!  As we made our way up to Trent's Mom I started to feel a little bit exhausted and sick to my stomach.  It was hot and I figured I just needed a better warm up.  So I climbed around a little bit until we gave up and started onward to the real goal of the trip, Godsend.  Godsend is a beautiful submarine prow jutting out of a cliff band about 500 vertical feet above the road.  I thought the deathly steep 30 minute hike would wake me up and fix my rumbling tummy.  I was wrong.  After getting there my stomach hurt so bad I could hardly stand.  I still gave Godsend a few solid goes to no avail.  It felt doable which was nice, maybe on a non terminal illness (maybe a bit dramatic) day I could send.  Tommy did it in a few tries of course.  At this point I was worried about my ability to hike down and was trying to think of a way to use my crash pad as a sled to avoid being on my feet.  Well anyway I started down and walked slowly about 100 feet before it all started to come up.  I quickly dropped my crash pad, bent over off the trail, and sprayed the hillside with a cascade of my belly's contents. It was the 2nd time I had thrown up in last 15 years of my life.  Fortunately, I felt a little bit better and made the hike down.  Unfortunately, I had to bail on Tommy later that evening (it was the longest 3 hour drive of my life). But also fortunately, he still had a good trip sending Godsend (V9) and The Incredible Hulk (V9). Here's his video:
 

Moe's Valley Comp and a taste of Joe's

A few weekends ago we were happy to attend the annual Moe's Valley clean up and comp. Casey's finger was still in recovery, so I represented the Webb's. It turned out to be an AWESOME day for me!!! I was a little worried when we first showed up because I wasn't feeling too great, but I went with the attitude of just having a good time and hopefully sending my project. Jens and Vonae joined us for the fun, and they were the perfect climbing companions. We started off with some short, easy warm ups and then Jens quickly sent No Mind V5 and Huntsman Graffiti also V5. We then hiked up to the upper valley, did a few more V3's to warm up and I hopped on my project Backhoe V5. I did the ending a couple times because that has been my downfall (literally!) on my last few attempts. It felt great and I figured out the best beta, then I tried it from the start. I'm happy to say that I sent it! Wahoo!!!!! What a great feeling! I love sending projects! I was still feeling pretty good so I decided to try Device Ignitor Middle. I sent it over a year ago and I have to admit I haven't tried repeating it because I was afraid it would shut me down and I'd get discouraged. Not the case. I guess the psych of a competition was on my side because I sent it I think on my 4th try! It felt so invigorating!! Two V5's in a day for me is kind of a big deal. And then I sent Underwhere right V4! By this point my climbing was getting less than graceful, but I was having so much fun and felt so motivated. I was totally worn out by the end of the day, but it was worth it. I had a blast!! And, as a bonus, I won the women's division of the comp!! Jens also did fantastic and won the men's intermediate division! It was the funnest day of bouldering I've had in a while. Mostly because I have the coolest, most supportive, awesome husband in the world! Seriously, I owe it all to him. Well...almost all. I did work pretty hard. :) And now that I've spent too much time bragging about myself, here are some pictures!

And a video Casey made of my project.


And as an even greater bonus, here's a little video Tommy put together of some of his Joe's Valley footage. Looking awesome!

Joe's Valley Winter 2012 from Tommy Rigby on Vimeo.

President's Day Weekend

After too many weekends without climbing, we had a GREAT long weekend for President's day! Mashery (a.k.a. Matt, Ashley, Parker, and Tommy) came down and we stayed at Matt's sisters house in St. George.  It was so wonderful just getting out and forgetting about school, work, etc. On Saturday we went to Black and Tan and climbed at Kelly's Wall for a few hours. It was there that we had an epiphany! Sport climbing is perfect for us right now!! Well mostly for Casey coming off a finger injury. I might still need some convincing to get super psyched about it. It will be fun to change focus for a while and build our endurance! We have some big plans. 

Here are some pics. Awesome gray limestone with horizontals and runnels!

 Parker was pretty excited about doing some bouldering! I think he especially loves chalk.

 Nice resting spot!

 I discovered that Joshua trees are entertaining photography subjects.

 Sunday we had a nice rest day in St. George. Casey and I went to Pioneer Park and hiked through the crack. Boy was that place crowded! Who wouldn't love to spend their weekend in sunny St. George?

Monday morning we met Greg, Chelsea, Jens and Vonae at Moe's for a little bit of bouldering.

 We hopped over to Chuckawalla in the afternoon to get in a few laps on a rope.

 I'm not sure why this picture popped up clear down here. Oh well! It's still pretty cool. The sky was perfect!!

 And this is obviously back at Moes.

A Nice Solo Day for Tommy

Day trip to Joe's Valley from Tommy Rigby on Vimeo.

Paragonah/Little Creek Canyon Clean Up Day

Yesterday we had our first official Paragonah bouldering clean up day. I believe the consensus was that it was a success! In a matter of only about 4-5 hours we managed to clean and establish three quality boulders and sent a few great problems with more projects in the process. The rock quality is good and the movement was great. From our first impression we think it will be better than the Wash. Plus there is still a TON more potential! There are a lot of boulders in the canyon that we'd like to clean and put up problems on, and we were looking at Google Earth this evening and discovered that the next canyon over (Red Creek) looks maybe even more promising! Thank you to everyone who came and helped! It was a great day. We are looking forward to many more!

Seth climbing the first problem of the day. "The Nothing" We haven't really established grades yet. After a little more traffic we'll be able to get a better consensus on the grades.

Derek climbing a cool warm-up and cleaning while he goes!

 Me on the start of the same warm up. "Step One."

 Amy also climbing "Step One."

 Casey and Seth did a little cleaning on this boulder that is right by the creek. The start needs to be dug out a little and the ground was frozen. Plus it was wet so it will have to wait for another day. The sloping rails look pretty awesome though! The rock is perfect. So solid.

A very cool problem that has yet to be sent. Very gymnastic, slopey, compressiony...

 Derek's new line "Lavar Burton." Nice sharp sidepully features.

 My f.a. "Reading Rainbow." Really cool opposing sidepulls to a nice crimp scar. Another great one. It's not over until you've climbed up and over the 50 foot rainbow and made it to the ground on the other side!

Feeling motivated to join us for our next session yet?!!! 

Or you can go check it out by yourselves if you so desire... 

But we'll definitely be going back.