Vertical Edition: May 17, 2011

It has been a very long time. Pearl Jam is currently serenading me into a state of utter happiness. Or maybe my first batch of homebrew is the cause of this. Either way I am sitting here; 7:17pm on Monday May 16, very content and satisfied. I am enjoying homebrew number four and feeling the need to update this website. As most of you know my computer was needing a cleanup due to the mass amount of video compiled since January of this year. I began editing a long video to utilize all this much like I did for all 2010. I guess the only difference is I have filmed a ton this year so I have much more video than all of last year from just the past five months. So before Matt came I had completed the first three parts of the video. I got very little done while company was here but made significant progress after their departure. I now have the whole thing completed and am exporting parts four through six. It ended up being about an hour and ten minutes. The even more surprising thing is that I am happy with it. I have been pretty pleased with the end result which is uncommon for me. That is not why I am writing though. Two unbelievably important people came to visit in the past two weeks so I wanted to recap their trips.

On May fourth Matt arrived in the Springs at around eleven in the morning. KB was kind enough to pick him up at the airport while I was still at school...field day. Wow. I mean it kind of makes sense for it to be crazyness. The whole event focuses around moving a lot and quickly. Its just inviting outrageous behavior. I can't imagine what I would have been like on field day. Or at least I don't want to.

Funny related story. So my first day as a substitute teacher at the high school I was having lunch. A math teacher that I had several years prior came and sat down across from me. I could feel her eyes burning a hole in me and looked up from my (odds would be) leftover mexican food. She immediately says, "how does it feel being on the other end of students like you?" I heard it as endearing.

So I got off work and literally raced like Jeff Gordon, or Danica Patrick to be politically correct, across town to get home. That day I took Matt to Ute Valley, where I hurt my ankle. Gross. The climbing was good (for him). I watched and complained a little. After all the most important thing was us being able to hang out. The following few days were pretty much just filled with climbing. I sat out for the first four days and finally gave in. My ankle had been feeling ready but I still gave it extra time. I know many of you are scoffing and calling me a liar as we speak. However my words are true. In a matter of five days we bouldered at Ute Pass, Ute Valley, Castlewood Canyon, the Sheep's Nose and the Snake Pit. We also climbed Cathedral Rock at the Garden. Those of you who see the majority of my postings may remember Cathedral.

The most difficult part of his trip was the fact that I had to work during the week. I just felt like a jerk with him sitting at home. With this considered he had my car a couple days and spent most of his time either mountain biking, or just sitting and relaxing. Sounds pretty terrible to me. Oh I forgot he also decided to begin training for a fictitious iron man triathlon one of the days. Not actually but when he described his day it included many such activities. After hearing about such activities I was appauled and probably made some comment like, "well....I would rather jump off my roof and land on a bicycle with no seat." I don't remember exactly but I'm quite sure that was the gist.

On Saturday we went up to the Sheep's Nose. I obviously showed him the Amethyst Project which he was really helpful with. I think we figured out new beta which takes a completely different line for the topout. It is still wicked hard but the moves seem more doable. Still seems distant. I think Lauren is even more anxious for me to do it because I have told her that it is going to be named after her when (if) I finish it. That is also assuming that I don't find out that it has been climbed before. If I discover that then I won't be naming it at all.

After a few hours of floundering around on the boulders we became tired. Since it was a b e a utiful day and we shared a couple beers at the base of the Air Jordan block. It has the most amazing view. Nothing for miles in any direction. Just us two and the pup. Great way to end the climbing day, or lack thereof for me. We stopped at the German Craft Brewery in Woodland Park on our way home.

There were two highlights on the CWood Canyon day. One, I finished Cave Direct. The second may have been even more entertaining. We met a lovely gentleman named....well lets just say "Jeff". So about the time Matt and I arrive in the Font area "Jeff" wanders up. Not far into conversation he tells us he is in the area because "I am a professional climber." Intriguing. Well as the day goes on he mentions numerous other "intriguing" things.

Some of these include...

"I flashed the Game." (V16 first climbed in March of 2010 by Daniel Woods, repeated just recently by Carlo Traversi)

"That tattoo is sick! I'm sponsored by North Face."

"I developed a bunch of classic Colorado bouldering

areas in the early 80s,"

"Oh, are there any double digit problems around?

Like V12 or V14?"

This last one came after he asked me how hard Cave Direct was. My reply was,

"I've heard everything between V6 and V9 so somewhere in there. Give it a shot!"

Obviously this was far too easy. He decided to...

"just try to dyno."

Well

"just try(ing) the dyno"

apparently meant, I'm gonna touch the holds, then try to lift my feet. Then walk back to my prior location. Which just happened to be the ground; where he spent his ENTIRE day. IE not climbing.

The whole day with him was ridiculous. The MOST ridiculous part I unfortunately did not see or hear. As I was away chatting with Miss Kelly about Cave Direct "Jeff" and another climber were also chatting. The other climber made some comment about climbing like Dave Graham. "Jeff's" response was,

"Oh yea, I wonder what Dave is up to. I should give him a call."

This was followed by floundering over to where his phone was sitting. Picking it up and holding it to his ear for between 3 and 5 seconds. Then saying,

"Hey Dave its "Jeff" just sayin whats up man. Alright peace."

We can just leave it at that. This paints a vivid enough picture.

PS North Face does not have a "Jeff"

listed on their climbing sponsorship.

Anyway...

It was unbelievable to see him (Matt not "Jeff") and I was wicked stoked that he finally could, in a sense, put a name to a face just in regard to the Springs and where I live. It was weird prior that he had never even seen my house. Same was applicable to Lauren.

So on Tuesday Matt and I trucked up to the Denver airport to pick up Lauren. I was able to get the day off and was pumped about it. Her flight came in at 10ish. I was up at 5ish. Clearly I was excited. I edited a bunch of video to pass the time.

Lauren didn't know I was picking her up so as Matt answers his phone, "hey w.......I am driving up to the terminal right now" I got a little concerned. He saved it. I met up with her as she was coming around the corner to baggage claim. She kind of looked at me like I was a crazy person, which I can hardly blame her for.

It was amazing to see her. We spent the rest of the day touring Denver, seeing Red Rocks, and eating in Morrison. I do love Morrison. I do not love a waitress who drops a bucket of marinara all over my girlfriend on her first trip to Colorado. It kind of looked like she had murdered many many people. See attached picture.

We had a great night and it was amazing for me to have both Matt and Lauren in my house at one time.

I awoke at 4:30am the following morning to drive Matt to the CO Springs airport. It was as sad as always to say goodbye.

Similar to Matt, leaving Lauren at home all day was hard. I just knew that she was sitting at home which made the days go by so slowly.

Lauren and I spent most of our time exploring the Springs. Since she has been debating/planning on moving here I wanted to make sure she got a good feel for the town. We saw everything from restaurants to High Line road. We spent a day exploring downtown, we went up to Manitou. It was wonderful. The best part was just getting to be with her.

One thing that sticks out in my mind about her trip is the effect she had on the creatures inhabiting my house. Sharma and Boss loved her. Sharma literally spent every waking second trying to get closer to her. I absolutely mean this literally. Every time I looked at him I could see him plotting a way to encroach on her even more than he had to this point. He is pretty well trained and listens quite well. These things went out the window during Lauren's visit. I would tell him things and he would look at me, then look at Lauren, and consistently make the decision that the possibility of getting her attention would be worth the possible beating heading his way from me. I swear I have never seen anything like it. He would lay down, like asked, on the other side of the room. Then he would crawl across the room all the way to her. He wouldn't stand up however was determined to be near her. It was ridiculous. See pictures attached.

On her last night here we tried my beer together. It was nice to get to try it for the first time with her! It was a great way to end an indescribably good trip. I dropped her off at the airport yesterday afternoon. I was obviously sad to see her go. Luckily she may/will be moving to this lovely city very soon.

Until next time everyone.

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Graduation Boulder