King of Pain

Someone smarter than I might ask the question... "why the hell would you go and climb some tower that's been named King of Pain?
To which I would reply "because I'm training to do something much more stupid than that!"

My friends would likely ask "what took so long?"  To which I would have no acceptable answer.

I'm not really sure what took me so long to bow down to the climbing bug, but I do know that I've been bitten.
Perhaps it's not a bug at all,  but a strange form of zombie type mind control?
My  battered hands are leading a blank  stare to the next vertical wall,  and my lips just mouth the phrase " must climb rock" over and over again........

What ever the case, I'm simply climbing rocks, so that I can climb more rocks, so I can climb more rocks better........
Heading to the Bridger Jacks falls right into this equation, and King of Pain seemed like, well...a  "no brainer!"
 

belay # 2

The climb was, aptly named, kicked my ass, and as expected left me wanting for more.
Lot's of variety, and long stout pitches of funky desert tower climbing adventure.
Perfect training for something bigger, harder, and  moooooore stupiderrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

belay #1

the top

pulling ropes after the first rappel

the result

Please stay tuned for more zomie climbing updates.

The Dirty D with friends.

I wouldn't usually make camp in a blown out cow patty patch, but somehow it seemed ok to start this tour of the lower Dirty Devil by dealing with some shit.

 It was already past midnight when we made camp on Friday after a long work week, and a thirty mile ride in the dark. No one seemed to mind a little poop at that point.

The weather for the weekend had warned of high winds and some major sun for the weekend.
They weren't kidding.
We had a pretty steady head wind down the canyon, with occasional sand blasting spells.
The road was sandier than I had experienced in the past and our pace was mellow, and full of great photo opportunity's.  

Glen rides through the super classic puddle choke section in great morning light.

I found some quality crack climbing boulder problems to waste time on.

Cullen earning his new nickname "flipper"

 

Ah the take out and the end of another great weekend with quality friends!!

winter desert photos and indian creek

 wow it sure is nice to have a few days off to just walk around and shoot some desert scenery
these shots were taken in buckskin wash/wire pass and in the red canyon area near bryce.
i got a new camera this fall and i have to say i'm really happy with it.

after a lot of research, head scratching, and more research, i decided on the new sony nex5n
with a two lenses. a 16mill and an 18 55 micro zoom.

here are the pros and cons from owning this camera now for about 3months

pros list is much longer than the cons and i have to say that for the price, i love this camera

cost; with 2 lenses and a nice case 900 bucks/ comparable slr's were in the 1500 range
size; with the 16mm lens this camera is only slightly bigger than my old point and shoot
easy; to use and the learning curve was short
killer; image quality for a camera of this cost and size.

cons; not a big fan of the touch screen 
     

 so here are just a few samplings from last week

 it was so cold in here but the only way to get shots was to have the gloves off non stop
very painful!!

 testing out the b+w blue setting with some good results

in 1994 i bought the classic how to rock climb book by john long.
i read that thing front to back several times, did some bouldering, and fully intended to get into rock climbing. but then i found cycling and never looked back. over the years i've had very little interest in rekindling the climbing bug that i had found as a teenager, but i did always feel like i was missing out on something there.
that was until last spring when my good friend thad (climbing addict) suggested that we climb south sixshooter on the first leg of a bike packrafting trip around utah.(see older posts).
well we got rained out that first day and ended up crossing the colorado river over to the white rim and climbing one of the first pitches on washer woman tower the next day.
that was it for me, i was hooked!

so here are some shots from thanksgiving weekend at the creek
thanks thad!!

 nevadas first climb age 8
i love the size of the chalk bag here!!

 thad getting pumped on ananuki

 south six shooter in the back ground from the top of easter island at the bridger jacks,brrrrrrrrrrr!!

 heading up

 i've always had trouble with portraits but i think this new camera is somehow helping?

 summit crew

hope you liked this, as  you can expect to see more of this kind of stuff from the republic of doom.
bye now