Tendonitis. Shit.

I've given up. I tried to ignore it. I tried to climb through it. Hell, I even tried to rest (which didn't actually happen). Now my hand is being forced. Literally.
Two weeks ago I woke up with a strange dull pain in the back of my hand. Felt like a break, but not as severe. Same type of pressure. I figured it'd go away. Two days later it was obvious it wasn't gonna just disappear, so I did what everyone else would have done... I started training again. By the time I left for St. George, my endurance had been cut in half. At least. After a few bolts of jugs, my right arm would be wooden. Shit.
Finally I went to a doctor. Thats a big step for me. He says its a bad case of extensor tendonitis. Rest is my only option. So, again, I did the obvious. Two more days of climbing. I did manage to redpoint a 12a (which felt like 13b with my wooden claw), and fall all over Joe Six Pack, a techy Randy Leavitt 13a that I'll certainly come back for. Its bound to be a little more doable with two hands.
At any rate, I'm resting. 2 weeks. Maybe 3. Maybe a month. Till its better. If I can.
In the meantime, heres a video of Misty, drunk, freestyling about my misfortune. Sorry about the lighting and shoddy camera work. I'd had too much Rogue Ale and was just testing the video function on my new point and shoot. Regardless, its more than worth it. Enjoy!

In Southern Utah, its not all 3.2%.

I'm down in St. George, at Misty Murphy's house for the week. We escaped SLC and the OR tradeshow just in time. A travel killing snowstorm hit just after we headed south for sunshine and good rock. Day 1 we climbed at VRG, and well, honestly, my hand sucks. My endurance has been halved, so I finally went to see a doc. Apparently its just a bad case of extensor tendonitis. I'm tryin to be nice to it, but its tough with so much rock to climb, unless you have beer.
Beer. Misty and I might have maybe gone to somewhere something like Nevada and sorta bought beer, or a beer like product, and kinda brought it back into the Mormon state. Maybe. I think.
At any rate, it did its job. Joining us for the drunken festivities were Misty's man toy, Lib Narho, the infamous John "Verm" Sherman, and his lady friend, Cindy. Misty's friend Jen also rolled through, and turned out to be REALLY funny.
Somehow Verm was psyched to record his first rap, so we descended into the studio and let loose. When the song is mixed and done... you'll hear it. OH MY. You have no idea...
However, I thought Verm was a drinking pro. Seems that shortly after his turn on the mic he crossed the line, and passed out on the couch. Verm, you missed out, but I got it on tape so you can see it when you finally come to...



Misty breakin it down... and The Verm, missin it.

DELAYED!

I didn't get to bed last night until 1am, which left me with 2.5 hours of sleep before I had to beat my alarm clock into submission and drive 1.5 hours to the airport. I took a quick flight to Memphis, to lay over for an hour before heading to my final destination of Salt Lake, for the Winter OR show. However, my hour layover became 4 hours, as our plane is grounded at LaGuardia. Shit. It really wouldn't be so bad, except I have to sit here surrounded by frantic people who are yelling into their cell phones, apparently hoping that someone will pull a new plane and crew out of their ass. I'm not gonna sweat it though... I've found a pleasant side effect to this waiting game.
Have you ever noticed that when you're alone in a public place, for any length of time, that women who wouldn't normally warrant a second glance, are suddenly smokin hot? Maybe I just harbor some airport fantasy that I'm not consciously aware of, but I swear I've looked longingly at 14 different women in the past 10 minutes.
Make that 15. I'm suprised her daughter let her out of the house dressed that way.
At least every 3rd woman who passes by has my attention. I've been here a few hours already, so of course I've already decided on a few "regulars". There's the extremely distraught Daddys Money Ski Bunny who yelled at her mother on her iPhone that she "could never sleep at a time like this". Its a crisis, I imagine. The powder may completely melt before she makes it to Utah. Regardless, I'm positive she would make beautiful babies.
Then theres "Blue Dress". In fact, I could say those 2 words to any male (or female) within 20 gates of my seat, and they'd know who I mean. I first saw her in the food court. She smiled at me in between bites of some cubed potato product smothered in ketchup. I'm suprised I caught the smile, as I was sure my gaze was fixed on the plunging neckline of her dress. Evening gown. Electric blue. Its 9am at the airport lady. Oh well. Thanks for that.
And now the mom that just walked by a few minutes ago. She's been by 4 more times. She's tugging along a cute little curly haired girl (proof positive that she makes beautiful babies) with one hand, and pulling some $300 designer bag that I couldn't possibly fit my ipod into with her other. I'm going with the theory that she makes her money herself, because I'm certainly in the market for a sugar momma. She said hello.... and she has that southern drawl that melts me. Of course, the rock on her finger is at least 2 pitches tall. I'll just pretend I don't see that...
In a few hours I'll (hopefully) make it to SLC, and it'll be the same deal all over again. A convention center filled with hot, athletic women who like to get dirty, but that'll be another blog altogether.
For now, I'm just excited to see who I'm sitting next to on the plane...

Oh Nine

Its hard to believe its been a year since we rang in '08. I've dated girls who spend longer on their hair. Actually, I'll probably date more of those girls, so I'll leave that one alone.

At any rate, '08 was a good year. Every year we all meet a million new people, and maybe 3 of those we'll remember in the distant future for the impact they've made on our lives. I have at least 3 of those this year. They may or may not know that things they've done, or things they've said, have helped me make profound choices that I'm sure I won't regret. One is a beautiful voice and all around creative woman whose wit and artistry amaze me. One is an incredibly talented writer with leave you speechless looks who can be as shockingly abrasive as one of the guys, though twice as intelligent. The third is one of the strongest women I've met, and you can see it in the way she raises her children, hear it in the way she speaks of her life, and learn it just from watching her eyes dance. So to Misty, Lydia, and Amy.... Thank you, and I hope that I can somehow do for you what you've done for me.

NOW... it wouldn't be a new year if it didn't have a party! In this case, a party at Rocktown, GA, with nearly the entire Red River Gorge, half of Indianapolis, and Frank from the Gunks. Throw in a chainsaw, a giant fire, and perfect sandstone boulders, and you've got yourself a regular hoedown!

Blue Skies, Perfect Temps, and Velcro Friction.

Yeah, right. Quite the opposite. More like, "Can't even see the sky because we're engulfed in a cloud, its 70 degrees in December, and its 398% humidity." Lovely, to say the least. Near perfect climbing conditions... if you're a fuckin Gorilla in the Congo.

Hold up... it wasn't ALL bad. In fact, Christmas day was actually near perfect. Ines and I decided to stop at LRC since it was closer than HP40, so we could get more climbing in. We warmed up, and I headed back to Cleopatra to try and get my revenge. Stuck the hard move with NO problem. Then fell a move later. Again. Again. Again. Finally stick the "last" of the hard moves. Fall off the top. Apparently it isn't over, huh? Little break.... send. My first "real" V8 took WAY more skin than I had anticipated, but I'm glad to have donated. Now I'm just gonna stand near that problem and spew beta whenever I can.

Then came the rains.

We met up with Joe "this shit is wack, yo" Kinder and his better half, Colette, and Ryan Johnson to head up to Dayton Pockets, in hopes that the roof would hold some dry rock. A little damp... but we had a fun day despite the conditions.

Ryan crushing, and me doing my patented "Super Speed Kung Fu Spot".

Me, coppin a feel on Colette. Joe's too busy with the camera to notice...

Me workin out the moves on "Sand Blasting Skin".

After we worked our abs into submission, and after much deliberation, weather checking, and calzones the size of footballs, Joe, Colette, Ines and I headed for Rocktown.

This is what we awoke to:

Natalie and the Pimp Van, engulfed in a cloud.

No go on the rock scaling. I'm back home in Cincy. Gonna chill with Katy for a couple of days... then make another assault on Rocktown. Weather looks good and I'm gunnin for a problem called "The Vagina"... what could be better?

Ice.

I had quite a bit of time to think today. 5 and a half hours, to be exact. Just as I was leaving work, all of nature conspired against me, and coated all of Cincinnati and the surrounding area in just enough ice to make driving seem impossible. And it seems, it WAS impossible for the people who had to go the same routes I did... because every way I went there was a roadblocking accident or 3. Should have taken an hour... took over 5. Not very productive.

No matter. Natalie (my Element) and I were just fine. In fact, she's been nothing but great. I had no intention of buying an Element, but on my way to car shop, my friend Justin said "You don't want a Hyundai... you want a Honda". Apparently I did, because I bought her an hour later. Anyway, this isn't about Natalie. I'll dedicate a blog to her later.

Like I said... time to think.

Heres what I thought about:

My new Sierra Designs BTU jacket. Warm. Hot. I look damn good in it.

Christmas with Katy. This isn't my favorite time of year, but she makes it all worth it. We had an immense amount of fun shopping, wrapping, and taking photos.
Bouldering... or more importantly, bouldering on good ole Southern Sandstone. Photo by Anna Hayes.

I leave in 28 hours for Horsepens, to start on my V9 projects. Shit, I don't even have a clue what V9 is going to feel like. Probably something akin to spending 5 and a half hours driving home on the ice...

Southern Sandstone and Sweet Potato Pie

My tips aren't shredded. Instead, they're just worn through. Raw. I love it. However, I've not remotely reached the level of dedication my friend "Badash" Hamilton did at the Triple Crown in LRC last weekend (where, incidentally, she took 2nd in womens advanced... go Ash!) Badash showin off the dedication it takes. Photo by Dan Brayack.

I've been here at LRC for a couple of days now, losin skin with a great crew of people. Ana Hayes, Catherine West, Shannon Lamb, Keenan Connor, and some other psyched climbers. I've been tourin the classic 5's, 6's, and 7's. Bouldering is hard. Fuckin hard. I'm not so good at it, but I will be. Winter will bring me power.... bet on it. Just to throw my hat over the fence... the goals for the winter are "The Orb", "The Vagina", and a V9... not sure which. I'll be coppin feels on all the good ones I run across to find the right one. If you don't hear about them on here by March... talk shit about me. I would about you...

I'm currently sitting in a nice warm apartment, with about 11 people and 3 dogs, eating the most amazing sweet potato pie you could imagine, courtesy of Jesse Cherry and Brian Tuteur. They've not only graciously opened their home to us, but cooked us crabcakes, potato and veggie stew, and sweet, sweet, sweet potato pie.

Jesse is a particular inspiration to watch climb. 11 months ago she took a bad fall at TWall, breaking her pelvis in 3 places, fracturing a vertabrae, and breaking a wrist. Today she hiked her most recent project, "Super Mario", a great V4. (This, after working 2 full time jobs the day before, getting home at 7am and sleeping only about 5 hours.) I've never seen someone so excited. She had to pause for a few minutes on the topout so as not to shake herself off with excitement. I had decided my day was over, but riding on the wave of her excitement, went on to do a V5 and flash a V6. Thanks Jesse! Next time I want to whine about something...anything... I'll think twice.

One more day here till Xmas. More to come later...