Actual Climbing!

I've been a bit tardy in publishing anything to do with climbing, instead complaining about my work. Nevertheless, interesting things have been happening on the climbing front. Let me summarize the latest happenings...

I am now at route-setter at the bouldering cave at UBC. It's not a huge wall (pretty short, actually), but they've got a lot of nice holds, and good angles. They've actually got the entire set of the old black Karn holds, which in my opinion, is the best set of slopers ever created. I think it was Jim Karn that shaped them...

Bouldering has been going off in the forest lately. Mostly because my good friends Terry and Selena are here visiting, along with the mighty Marshall, from Edmonton. They are a motivating bunch, so Shelley and I have been out bouldering a few times in the last week or two. Terry has put up two new lines in the forest (old projects that I had cleaned, and failed on). Send The Pain Below (V10), a steep belly in WendyWorld, and Bates Motel (V9), an AWESOME line on the Hotel boulder. I worked BM with Terry, and could actually do most of the moves, but STPB has a really hard move at the beginning (a big throw to an edge) that I can't do at all. More training!

Marshall has been eating the forest. By that I mean doing all the hard problems QUICKLY. He almost flashed The Backseat (V10), and worked through all the classics (Mantra, and even did One Zen (V10+) which isn't done that often). Marshall is an inspiration - his ability is the product of a LOT of hard work, which makes me want to start training hard again. So - hats off to Marshall.

It is great having Terry and Selena here. They love to climb, and more importantly, they love Aya! I want to have a van like T&S, and travel around, and climb. Maybe next year!

Paul-from-the-wall was also here. He is sickly strong. Strong. Strong.

I know this all sounds perfect. But there are a few things missing...

Where are the rest of the Edmontonites? I missed all the 'regulars' this year - no Greg and Irene, no Lloyd, no Aaron, and no Pete! Pete was supposed to come, but had to work. That is sad.

Anyways, more soon. I need to figure out how to post pictures on this thing.