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This past weekend the Hangout Climbing Centre hosted the Western Canada Regional Bouldering Championships. I have to say I was extremely disappointed in the support that this competition received from the local climbing community. The registration in the Open category was decent with 23 open males and 14 open females (only one competitor from Calgary???) but the advanced category was attrocious with only 3 males and zero, none, zilch female competitors. Not only that but nobody showed up to watch the finals!!! What's going on? The routesetting was awesome and the comp was run well. I know there was some apprehension regarding the isolation format for all categories and I know the competition was changed at the last minute to a single day but that doesn't justify the lack of interest from the community. Was there no promotion of the comp at other gyms? Did the lack of other local boulder comps reduce the interest? I'm really not sure and really disappointed. I hate seeing all the hard work and energy of the organizer and routesetters go to waste.

Well that sucks... Last night was the last game of the Canucks season and they missed the playoffs by losing 7 of their last 8 games. I was listening to the last few games on my XM satellite radio while down in Utah. The only highlight was the tribute made by the players to Trevor Linden in the final game. Listening on the radio I didn't get a chance to see it but fortunately the power of YouTube allowed me to look it up later. Here it is in case anyone missed it. Linden Tribute

It's just been announced that parking will be available for Skaha in time for the Easter long weekend. For those that don't know about Skaha, it was pretty much my home climbing area growing up. Access for the longest time has been through a private parking lot on Braesyde Farms and has caused huge headaches for the owner of that farm in terms of neighbours complaints and insurance liability. As such the parking in Braesyde Farms was closed in late 2007. In the fall of 2007 land was purchased that will be used as a new parking lot but access to this land requires an additional road and easement through private property for access, access that was not going to be completed until the end of 2008, meaning that a whole season of climbing would be lost. Fortunately after some hard work by local climbers and the different levels of government an agreement has been reached with Braesyde Farms to allow parking for one more year.

This is great news and means climbing will be possible at Skaha over the Easter weekend. Although Easter is early this year and I'm not sure the weather will be 'climbable'.

More information can be found at Skaha.org.

I just returned from Anchorage, Alaska where I was helping to routeset for a competition and ran a few climbing clinics at the Alaska Rock Gym. I was a little worried before going up there that the weather would be horrendous, or the routesetters would be inexperienced or uncoorperative and maybe the clinics wouldn't be well received. Fortunately I was wrong on all accounts and the trip was awesome. It was cold and I didn't spend a lot of time outside but at it was clear and sunny most days. The staff of the climbing gym, the management and the routesetters were awesome. The routes were creative and consistent without any silly hard moves in the middle. Ted, Josh, Matt, Dustin, Taylor... you guys (and gal) are awesome! The junior team that Ted coaches is well structured and I will be looking for good results in the coming months and years. Thanks for having me up there Siri and Bruce, we'll have to do it again sometime.

Today I managed to redpoint a boulder problem that I was really happy with called The Mandala located in The Buttermilks area near Bishop, California. The Mandala is arguably one of the most famous boulder problems in North America (Evilution, Midnight Lighting are others) and while I had looked at it before I had never thought of getting on it. I honestly didn't think I'd be able to do it but after spending four weeks in Hueco I wanted to try. We weren't planning on going to Bishop but after it got warm in Hueco and the bureaucracy become to much we headed to Bishop for five days of vacation bouldering. Needless to say I was psyched when I first tried The Mandala and felt like I could do the moves. The day I did it was warm and I waited for the sun to set. As soon as the sun set it got really cool out and I managed to redpoint it on my first try of that day. It was one of those moments where it took me awhile to realize that I had actually done it. Here's a video:

I've been hanging out in El Paso, Tx for the past month and I have to tell you it's a funny little town. It's a border town so there is a huge Mexican population which I think adds a uniqueness to the town and I really like that. There are some amazing desert views, Hueco Tanks is awesome and the combination of Kristoph's Coffee and Vista Mercado make it a fun place to hang out. However the general population is pretty sloppy and unfit. There's garbage being blown around by the wind everywhere, an almost constant haze and large, large people everywhere. I'm guessing they don't eat well in general. I was buying groceries and had some brocolli and bell peppers. The checkout girl asked me what I use the vegetables for. I said "stir-frys, fajitas or salads. What do you use them for?". To which she replied that she "wasn't much of a veggie person"... go figure...

I don't know how many of you have been folling this story but it definitely raises a few questions. After hanging out with the guys from Paradox Sports, an organization for providing sport and recreational opportunities for physically disabled people, I started paying a little more attention to this story. To summarize there is a South African sprinter who was born without fibulas and uses prosthetic running legs to compete in sprinting competitions. He was trying to appeal to be able to compete in the Olympics in 2008 but was recently denied because it was found that his running legs gave him an unfair advantage over other competitors. The article linked above mentions that:


While I feel bad that Pistorius is unable to represent his country against able-bodied athletes in the Olympics I agree with the IAAF's ruling. I think it would set a bad precedent to allow people to use prosthetics for an advantage. I could see this going as far as people wanting to get implants to help them win.

Now the issue of Canadian Mountain Biker Michelle Dumaresq?? Well that's another issue. I think if it can be proved (key word here) that she has an unfair advantage over other competitors then she should not be allowed to compete. Harsh for her but fair for other competitors.

I am currently in Las Vegas, an utterly grotesque urban sprawl in the middle of the desert and I was wondering how they could continue to support this large of a city with limited water supplies. One of the easiest solutions to me would be making the instalation of dual-flush toilets mandatory. I was pleasantly surprised by seeing dual-flush toilets for the first time in North America in the Portland airport on my flight down. I also saw dual-flush toilets at the visitor center at Red Rocks, however all the new hotels and homes don't seem to be installing them. Why not? Water conservation is cited as one of the top concerns for Las Vegas residents. Seems like an easy solution to me.

With all the air travel I've had to contend with lately I was amused to read this article about the security measures currently implemented. By far the worst experience I had was in Amsterdam where they made you go through an extra security check prior to boarding the plane. This went for all passengers and meant that you weren't allowed to bring any water on board. What a hassle! Personally I don't think there are enough people in the world that want to blow up planes to necessitate all the extra security.

A friend of mine sent me this link to research done on a very popular question about hockey. Can you get a fat enough goalie to fill the net?
Link To Story

I thought the article was quite humourous especially the
"You might spear him and see if chocolate came out."
quote.

I just thought I'd pass along some information I received from the people over at blurr. Looks like they are clearing out their Squamish warehouse of last years inventory and samples. They are having a sale of this stuff at the Climb On store in Squamish in a few weeks. The sale runs from 10 am until 3 pm November 24th and 25th. Check out the blurr website for more information.

A few weeks ago I moved some bolts on a route at The Red River Gorge called Fifty Words For Pump. Since then there has been some people trying to stir up controversy over why I would move the bolts. This post will hopefully clear up my motives but maybe not the controversy.

First of all the original bolter, Hugh Loeffler, bolted the line almost 10 years ago. Last year I met Hugh and he encouraged me to get on the route and if necessary to move the bolts around. The sequence that was being worked required a hard clip at the fourth bolt that if skipped would get the climber very close to a ground fall. During the Petzl Roc Trip a few of the European climbers, I'm not sure who exactly, set about finding some beta that would allow the fourth bolt to be clipped easily. In doing so they found a huge hold down and right of the fourth bolt. You could clip the old 4th bolt from here but the old bolts made it hard to work the moves out right. In fact I thought the old bolts made it hard to work the moves left as well. On an extremely overhanging route like Fifty Words, proper bolt placement makes it a lot more enjoyable to work the moves. After trying the moves to the right I felt stupid for not having seen that sequence my first time up the route. I then moved the third and fourth bolts about two feet to the right to make it easier to clip and work the moves. I left the old bolts in place and I have told anyone who asks that if the locals don't like the new bolts then feel free and remove them, you can still climb the new sequence with the old bolts and it's just silly to be climbing the old sequence when a new sequence has been discovered, but whatever.

In my opinion bolt placements are pretty arbitrary especially on well bolted sport routes like here at the Red. I also think that if simply moving a bolt makes a route more enjoyable then it should be moved. For instance on Thanatopsis I think the fourth bolt should be moved to the left since a new sequence was discovered that moves out that way. Again, you can easily clip the current fourth bolt on Thanatopsis but working those moves requires pulling a few moves into the crux and taking a swing fall everytime. It's not dangerous but it just puts additional wear on your rope and skin. On other routes that I have developed I have added bolts or moved bolts as little as six inches if it makes the route more enjoyable.

I fully admit I'm a lame sport climber who spends a lot of time flailing around and would like to reduce that flailing by having better bolt placements :)

I went to a Canucks game for the first time in three years last night. They were playing in Columbus so a few friends and I grabbed some tickets, drove up from the Red River Gorge and got in early to watch the pre-game warm-up. Just my luck that it would be one of the five games all year that Roberto Luongo didn't play. Don't get me wrong Curtis Sandford played great but I was really hoping to see Luongo in action. Fortunately the Canucks won the game so I wasn't overly disappointed.

Well another Petzl Roc Trip has come and gone and I have to say that it was an amazing experience. Not only did the Red River Gorge Climbers Coalition reach their goal of $30,000 dollars raised but the community really seemed to appreciate having the event. On Saturday there must have been 300+ people watching the athletes at The Motherlode and easily twice that many at the films on Friday night and the party on Saturday night. Many of the top climbers are sticking around for a bit, at least a few weeks so there should be lots of news coming from the Red in the next few little while. Thanks to Petzl for their support of the event and to Bentley Brackett along with Morgan Sprague for the countless hours spent organizing this event. It was awesome!

I had previously heard of an organization called Paradox Sports, a non-profit organization that provides disabled or persons with limited movement the tools and opportunity to realize their dreams or goals. This past week I had the opportunity to meet some of the people involved and hopefully I can help them out when they run a few clinics this weekend in collaboration with the Petzl Roc Trip.

This is a Rave for all my fellow co-workers back in Vancouver. Almost the whole team is working full time on a new form of advertising for online maps (new industry buzzword Mapvertising). The new form of advertising allows companies to buy portions of the earth (tiles) that if that tile is the focus of an online map then the company's ad will appear on the screen. This form of advertising also allows map publishers (mashups) to generate revenue as users move the map around and change their focus, a previously unfilled portion of online advertising. More information can be found at Lat49. Nice work guys!

I received this email from my dad today. I hate Telemarketers and while I understand it is just someone doing their job I can't believe that cell numbers are being released to them. If they call you, you will be charged for that call. How lame is that?


Oh yeah, that only applies to my American friends.

Well, according to my birth certificate I am 30 today. I guess that's supposed to be a big number but with all the travelling and escaping I've been doing lately I feel a lot younger than I did a few years ago. I spent my birthday with most of my family in New Hampshire. I went climbing with my brother Matt and my Mom and then had a great dinner, some fantastic wine (thanks Audrey) and played cards until well past mid-night. I received an XM radio package from Audrey and my family. Now I just can't wait for the NHL season to start so I can listen to ALL the games ;)

I love my truck. It just blows me away how reliable it is. I've got a 1999 Toyota Tacoma that I bought in 2002 and since then I have put 160,000kms (100,000 miles) on it without any major issues. It now has 220,000kms on it and I just spent the past month bashing it around on dirt roads then pointed it in the direction of Canada and drove 2600kms pretty much non-stop. Somehow this commercial seems appropriate.

I happened to be climbing in Rifle last week when a reporter from the Denver Post showed up to do an article on the area. Here's a link to the online article. In the paper article I actually had a small photo on the front page of the sports section and a larger photo in the article but neither of those made the online section. Also I have no idea where they got the whole 'ranked sport climber' stuff, I guarantee I didn't say that.

I'm psyched to report that after a few days of effort Audrey has redpointed Chronic - 5.13b up at Little Si. Here's a link to her scorecard. There's a photo of her on Chronic in her gallery. Nice work Audrey!

While I've always been environmentally aware I would hesitate to say that I am environmentally active. I try to recycle when the facilities are available, I don't litter and I don't support burning coal to produce electricity. Unfortunately I also drive a V6 truck, I drive everywhere and have crossed North America a few times and even flew to Australia and back all just for pleasure. On this roadtrip, with all the travelling I've done and all the people I've met I can't help but become more environmentally sensitive. The drought in Australia and how the farmers were struggling, the crazy global weather patterns and the increased political pressure on environmental standards have all led me to think more about the environment. I was surprised when I booked a flight on Air Canada and was asked if I wanted to contribute to an effort called Zero Footprint, where my donation would go towards a project to help offset the amount of carbon I was creating as pollution by flying. I recently read a column by Matt Samet in the recent climbing magazine about how much a roadtrip can leave a carbon footprint, even a day trip, and what we can do to reduce this pollution. While climbing is amazing and rad and spread throughout the world there are little steps we can do ro reduce a roadtrip footprint. Carpool, buy local produce, use a re-usable container when buying coffee, contribute to efforts like ZeroFootprint etc... every little bit helps. That being said I'm probably not going to think twice (unless the weather is iffy) about driving out climbing for an afternoon or weekend but I might use a refillable coffee mug.

"Wow man, that's cool as!" - "Yeah, that hold is small as!"... I have a question... as what? It's an expression I've been hearing a lot of for the past few months when Aussies are describing something. If you want to say something is really (insert adjective here) you simple say that it is "(use inserted adjective here) as". I initially thought people were saying "ass", as in "cool ass" but no. So what's the "as" referring to?

There are a few differences in expressions between North America and here. For instance in NA we say "How's it going?" and "How're you doing?", down here in Aus they ask "How're you going?" although more like "How ya goin' mate?". That took a little while to get used to but rolls off the tongue pretty easy. I was probably the only person who actually understood what Timmy O'Neil meant by saying he had been practicing for three days when he opened up his talk with a boisterous "How YOU GOIN'?"! I thought it was pretty funny.

Argh! My computer crashed last week right when a cool assignment came from work. The motherboard failed and I had to take it into Sydney to get it worked on. A whole week with no computer! I managed to get online at the library a few times but still, it's just not the same and I couldn't really work at all. Not only that but the weather was bad and Audrey and I had a lot of indoor time. We racked up a pretty expensive DVD rental bill... I just got my computer back though so I'll be working furiously to get back on track.

I just finished listening to the Canucks vs Dallas game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Canucks won!! It was great to hear Trevor get the game winning goal. On to round 2 vs Anaheim! I've managed to listen to a few games including the quadruple overtime session in game one and a few of the other overtimes. It's pretty stressful just listening but I can't find anywhere here in Australia to watch a game.

I just finished reading a book called Long Way Round about two British actors; Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman who decided to try and ride motorbikes from London across Europe and Asia (through Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Siberia), then fly over to Alaska and ride on down to New York. The book is well written as diary excerpts from both actors and the finished the journey in three months. I guess it was pretty easy riding across Europe and North America but parts of Kazakhstan and Mongolia were pretty demoralizing while parts of Siberia were impassable on motorbikes. Someday...

Well I've been in Australia for three days now and I've had to drive a few times. In North America we drive on the left side of the vehicle, but drive the vehicle on the right hand side of the road. In Australia they drive on the right side of the vehicle and drive the vehicle on the left side of the road. While you are driving it's not that hard to follow traffic and stay on the correct side of the road. It's just those times where everything is normally routine that it's different. For instance at a stop sign. I've been taught and now instinctively I always look to the left first, however in Australia the near traffic is on the right first. Backing the car up I'm so used to looking over my right shoulder it's almost hard to back up looking over your left shoulder. The gear shifter is on the left but fortunately the clutch-brake-gas pedals are in the same order. It didn't take more than a few seconds to get used to the gear shifter on the left but having the turn signal and windsheild wipers reversed is a pain. Everytime I go to turn I turn on the windshield wipers... reminds me of the Bill Cosby skit; dumb guy, dumb guy...

Even walking along a sidewalk or in a mall people walk on the left (escalators, stand left-walk right). I'm sure I'll get used to it but it's very noticeably different.

Since Audrey and I are flying to Australia and we don't know when we'll be back we are selling the Eurovan we used on our recent North America trip. A craigslist post (and some photos finally) can be found here - craigslist.

I was in Las Vegas this past weekend (referred to as Lost Wages by the pilot on the flight over) and I must say that it has changed a lot since I was there about 10 years ago. This time I stayed on the strip near the airport and was disappointed by quite a few of the changes. First of all the slot machines no longer take or give coins! What's the joy of winning a jackpot if you can't hear all the coins being thrown from the machines? In fact the machines take credit cards now, you can just plug your card in and spin until you are way in debt. Another thing I noticed was that all the casinos were way more into making money. I remember before that they only seemed to focus on the gambling as a way to make money. This time the drinks were expensive, the buffets were expensive and even the cheap slot machines seemed to give a poor return (maybe just me). All in all I had a pretty good time but Vegas is no longer a haven for a road tripping climber looking for cheap entertainment.

The company I work for (Idelix Software) recently released a new version of their mapsite. This is the website that I worked on for the greater part of eight months last year. The guys back at work have been going strong for the past four months on this new version and have added quite a bit of new functionality. One of the new features also makes it easier for people to see where I am on my roadtrip.

Try the following: Great work guys!

The nice people at Gripped managed to track me down and conducted an interview. Okay it probably wasn't that hard to track me down but the interview can be found online in the latest version of the Gripped e-Mag. Nice photos Audrey :)

I'd just like to say that my rant on Jan 20, 2006 was recently vindicated by the Fraser Institute. I just read an article in the Vancouver Sun saying that a reduction in income and corporate tax would be better for Canadians than a reduction in the GST.

Recently Audrey and I drove into the US from Mexico and then continued to drive across Southern Texas. When we crossed the border we weren't scrutinized too badly and the border process was a long lineup but fairly painless. Across Southern Texas there are border patrol checkpoints. These checkpoints appear fairly permanent and at each one we'd stop and be asked if we were US citizens and since I'm a Canadian we'd have to answer a few extra questions. I'm assuming they are looking for illegal immigrants and one time I was asked if I was Mexican-Canadian. This made me laugh but also made me angry. What would it matter if I was a Mexican-Canadian? I have a Canadian passport, I'm a Canadian citizen and I don't really see how my ethnic background would matter. It made me laugh because I have to be one of the absolute whitest people on the planet and I'm of Irish descent, most definitely not Mexican.

I also don't know how effective permanent checkpoints would be for stopping illegal immigrants. There are so many places to cross the border and so much land to walk on I can't imagine many people actually trying to drive through these checkpoints.

So Audrey and I are on the road in a 1997 Volkswagon Eurovan Camper and the 'Check Engine' light came on not long into the trip. First of all those 'Check Engine' lights must be some sort of a scam put in place by the manufacturers. To turn off the light you have to plug it in, get the error code and reset the computer. These days it'd be nice if it actually output the error code somehow so you could research it online and then reset it if it wasn't that big of a deal. Anyways we were near Bend, Oregon for awhile and decided to take it in to get the error code read and then decide if it was serious enough to fix then or to wait and have it fixed in Kentucky. We ended up taking it to a Volkswagon dealership in Oregon called Carrera Motors. What a joke... The guy at the service desk knew nothing about the Eurovan and to just get it plugged in and the error code read cost almost $100, and that didn't include any information on the possible causes of the error. The guy at the desk said it'd be another $100 or $200 to diagnose... I know dealership service centers work mostly with warranty vehicles but still... $100 for 5 minutes work and no information?

Fortunately the error wasn't serious so we didn't have to give those jerks any more money. We decided to chance it and get it fixed in Lexington, Kentucky. We looked online for a non-dealership volkswagon mechanic and stumbled across the Auto Gallery, a nice family owned and operated auto service centre that specializes in Volkswagon and Audi vehicles. After driving across the country and actually most of the night before I wasn't really in the mood for the runaround when we initially brought the van in there. We explained the problem and asked him to check the engine error code (it had come on again driving across the country). He hooked up the van right away and said it was the same error code. He then went on to explain what the most common causes of that error are and what he thought the problem would be after a quick inspection of the engine. The part he wanted wasn't in stock so he suggested we come back the following week. That initial diagnosis and information cost NOTHING! What a relief!

When we brought the van in he gave me an estimate; $120 for the part and about $80 in labour to change the vacuum tubes and replace the part. Sure enough the invoice came in at $208 with tax and he had done a pretty thorough inspection of the engine. It was a pleasure dealing with BLAH and if anyone in Lexington needs their volkswagon or Audi worked on I recommend going there.

Hockey is back!!! Once again hockey is being played across North America and so far the Canucks are looking pretty good. Yes I know it's only two games into the season but I can't help but get excited. I just wish I was around more to watch some games. It's going to be hard to follow the team on the road and especially hard when in Mexico and Australia :)

Well the last month has been absolutely crazy! In the previous rant (below) I go on about how tired I was and unfortunately I haven't slept well for two nights in a row since before going down to Rifle. I flew to Austria to coach at the world championships and was up pretty early and stayed up late almost every day, then I made an insane trek to Ceuse for only a few days and then on to Arco to climb and watch the Rockmasters. I flew home on Sept 5 but was in the office full time right away and haven't really had a chance to just sleep in and recover. Fortunately it was all a blast and I get some time off really soon (my last day of work is Friday, Sept 15)!. Then I'm on the roadtrip of a lifetime with no fixed address.

What a hectic work, climbing and travel schedule! I'm not complaining too much since I brought it on myself and it has allowed me to climb in some amazing areas.

Last Friday evening I drove down to Rifle, Colorado (19 hours) with my girlfriend Audrey. We arrived at around 4pm Saturday and climbed a few routes, slept and climbed on Sunday. Sunday night I drove her to Denver (3 hours) so she could fly back to Seattle. Monday morning I drove back to Rifle and spent most of the day either at the Library or outside it using the wireless signal. Tuesday found me climbing bright and early and I climbed until around 6pm (almost did Zulu...) then back down to the library to do some work. The library closed at 8 so I ended up going to a Starbucks (sigh) and paying for the Internet access. I was there until around 10pm, and then back at 5:30 when they opened. Around 2 I went back up to the canyon and attempted to climb but I was quite tired and I still had to drive to Salt Lake that evening (6 hours). I ended up driving about 4 hours and finishing the drive on Thursday morning. I spent the next two days working from the tradeshow or hotel room. At the tradeshow I managed to hang out with the Blurr folks a bit and even got a poster from Cerre (thanks). Saturday morning it was off to Maple for a bit more climbing.

I was exhausted but managed to haul my ass up to the Pipedream cave. What impressed me more was the fact that I was able to redpoint T-Rex, a possible 14b and contender for the steepest route in the USA. I had been on the upper part 3 times before while working Mexican Rodeo and had to go draw-to-draw to get the sequence back and I fired the link-up next go! The next day Audrey (she flew down Friday morning) wanted to get up super early to get good temps up at the pipedream before we had to drive home. So by now I was fully worked but managed to drag myself out of bed and hike up to the cave. At some point I decided to try and do yet another link-up, this one is Millenium (14a) into The Great Feast, called Eulogy. I had never been on The Great Feast before but with a local (Eric) giving me beta I decided to go for it. I was super tired after going through Millenium and couldn't recover properly so I ended up falling at literally the third last move of the link-up. Oh well...

Yesterday we drove back to Seattle (14 hours) to arrive at 5am, sleep a few hours, work today and now I have to drive up to Vancouver and fly to Austria tomorrow to coach the national team. I really need some sleep... maybe in a few weeks.

I can't stand the reactionary security measures that are put in place by the airports etc... Some guy tries to blow up a plane with his shoes so now we all have to take our shoes off going through security; some people have a plot to use liquid explosives so now we are not allowed any liquids, gels or other onto a plane? Water? Makeup? Lip balm? Apparently you can't even buy water once you are past security? I have to fly to Austria on the 15th and have a feeling this is going to be a pain in the ass...

I hate moving, always have, always will. It's just way too much effort. Why do we bother to own things? I think I'm going to live in squalor, in the back of my truck for the rest of my life... Oh wait, my truck's for sale. Crap.

I finally managed to spend a week out climbing in the Bow Valley. I haven't been out there in years! I hiked up to Acephale on my first day hoping to get on a route called Leviathan but ended up chickening out and doing Army Ants and Hairballs instead. The next day I was tired and decided that I would hike out to a 'new' climbing area called Planet X (or as Doug Orr says - Planet 10 - since it's so far out there). That cliff is amazing. 30m high with a nice gentle overhang. There's one route back there called Shooting Star that is probably 12c/d and is world class. I ended up going back there another day to get the redpoint on a route called Fudge Packer. Great cliff.

Thanks to everyone out there for their hospitality and letting me climb on their ropes (so I didn't have to hike one in). I really appreciate it.

Well another Canadian Junior Nationals has come and gone. This year the Romper Room stepped up and hosted the event and I have to say I was very impressed with the effort put forth by Aaron and his staff. I offered to routeset again and was a little surprised to hear that most of the routesetting was to happen on the Friday before the event. This left us up until 4am the night before finals tweaking the routes. Everything turned out well and I think the Edge junior team took home 6 of the 10 first place positions. Nice work guys!

I just bought a new digital camera, a canon 20D, and I'm hoping to play around with it for the next few months. Who knows maybe I'll fluke out and take some good photos.
So far I love it. I have taken way too many useless photos but with 5 frames/sec who wouldn't?

As many of you know I work for a company called Idelix Software Inc., which has a technology called - Pliable Display Technology (PDT). (website)
Well I've spent the better part of the last six months banging my head against a wall trying to get our technology to work in a browser using Javascript. It would have been very easy to use a Java Applet or an ActiveX control but our business team really wanted to go with Javascript. Anyways the result is this: Maps by Idelix.
Try it out, play with it, abuse it and then let us know what you think. It's still in beta so please be gentle with the criticisms and flowing with the compliments.

Another Canadian Boulder Nationals has come and gone. I was fortunate enough to have been able to routeset for this so I didn't have to embarass myself and compete. Actually I didn't even routeset... I showed up, ran some routes, suggested a few changes and had tons of people thank me for the routes! How cool is that!? So the real setters were definitely Andrew Wilson (a freakin' genius), Patrick Scott, Jeremy Pettigrew, Jeremy Blumel, Dan Poggi, Adam Diamond and Jordan Wright. And no offense to Jason Holowach who won but he's lucky Jordan and Patrick weren't competing. While running routes Jordan was convinced everything was too easy, and made them look that way as well.

A big thanks to all the people from across the country who travelled to this event. It's important to understand that these people shelled out their own money to support competition climbing in Canada and I hope it continues next year!

Ahhh... Surfing. Most people laugh when I say it's probably the most relaxing thing I do. When you're out there, waiting for waves, your mind is not consumed with anything else. You're always looking hoping the next one will be the best ride of your life.

I was out this weekend in Westport, Wa and the surfing on Sunday was awesome. The waves weren't that powerful but there was a great offshore wind and you could get tons of rides.

As the great Dale Webster said "The only worthwhile thing in life is to ride it to the end, try to find out the meaning of it all". "Surfing is the ultimate spontaneous involvement in the natural medium".

Those damn Vancouver Canucks have done it again... squandered another season of my life, and next year I'm not going to be around to even celebrate their stanley cup run (which will happen). Another year of apathy when playing worse teams, another year of bad panalties and ill-timed injuries (are there good timed injuries?). And the worst part is I owe friends in Calgary beer! I hate that part. 0-4 against St. Louis... crap.

Ahh soooo busy! I've managed to do a few Tour de Bloc events, travel to Italy and still log almost 300 hours of work in March. Crazy!

Anyways this rant is because a friend of mine has been passing on tons of links to videos about the 9/11 terrorist attacks and how it's all one big conspiracy theory. I'm not really into conspiracy theories but they do make for interesting coffee talk, and they do raise some questions that I'd like answered. Here's a link to a page the hosts some of the videos.

One of the things that puzzles me is the use of cell phones at altitude. Now I don't know what altitude flight 93 was at when these people were making cell calls but a friend and I recently flew to Calgary and sure enough there's not cell reception up there (course we were over the canadian rockies...).

Here's a link to a guy who rebutes some of the theories in one of the videos, pretty well thought out.

I managed to get up to Maple Ridge to help set for a Tour de Bloc event this past weekend at The Rockwall. A huge thanks goes out to Terry and Val from The Rockwall. They put in a huge effort to make this comp a success. I was a little disappointed there weren't more people in the Advanced categories, where were you guys and gals?

As for the election last night... I still don't understand what was wrong with Canada in the first place. The opposition did a great job getting people to believe we were a country in distress.

Although... I am living in the US and that's going great. Audrey and I are getting along just fine. She's still injured but back at work, hopefully everything will sort itself out and she'll be back on the rock in no time.

I can't believe it's been so long since I've updated this page! With so much going on from the Olympics to the Junior World Hockey Championships to the Canadian Elections! Might as well go off on the last one.

Maybe my view is a bit skewed living in BC, enjoying the post university life and making money for myself with no family and no responsibilities but is life really that bad? Do we need to vote against the current government as Canadians typically do, all the while supporting the Conservatives? I get the fact that people are mad at the Liberals and want a change but is this the best way to do it? I just don't think the policies of the Conservatives accurately represent the majority of Canadian values. Even the financial policies of the Conservatives seems a little skewed.
First off - Tax Cuts??? We have a $600 billion dollar fedaral debt. Are tax cuts really the way to go? Have they been proven to increase the economy above and beyond the loss of money going towards the debt?
Second (but related) - Reducing the GST??? This is the silliest thing I have ever heard. I'm not an economist nor have I studied economy so I might be off base on this one (surprise, surprise) but why would you reduce the GST? I'd rather increase the base personal amount on income tax or reduce income tax before targeting the GST. At least those cuts directly affect Canadians. With the GST at least we are gathering money from tourists as well, and I don't think many people refuse to come to Canada because of the GST. Getting rid of the GST might make sense if the administrative costs to the government and small business were overbearing but just reducing it?

Same sex marriage etc... This should not be a free vote in the house of commons. At some point rights are rights and it is not up to the majority to restrict the rights of a minority. In fact the government should get out of the whole marriage idea. Marriage is something that happens in a church or a certificate filled out by a judge but should not in and of itself be recognized by government. Allow people to define financial partnerships where they can file joint taxes, but that's all it is - a financial partnership. Take the whole notion of sex out of it, it's financial. That way it can be a married couple, a non-married couple who agree to a financial partnership, a homosexual couple, a pair of college friends who have been rooming together in a house and would like to buy it, a son/daughter who now has to look after their parent, etc... That way you can't claim to be discriminating against couples, and it's a right to file a financial partnership between any two people.

And I want to know who decided that a democracy was the best form of government. What we really need is a benevolent dictatorship, with someone exactly like me as the dictator :)

This past weekend I was up in Skaha for the first time this year. The weather was perfect! I finally managed to finish bolting a new route on Doctor's wall that I had started last fall. I quickly climbed the new route and named it "Tale of two Guys" in tribute to two friends who both contributed to the climbing on Doctor's wall, and who have both passed away far too early.
The route starts up GQ which was climbed by Guy Edwards in the mid 90s. That's actually where I first met Guy, he was working GQ and I was working Grin and Bear it. The other "Guy" was my good friend Todd Guy who bolted several routes on Doctor's Wall including Dr. Megacrimp and Building a Mystery.

In addition to climbing my project I also did a new route just to the right of Building a Mystery. I don't know what it is called but it starts just to the right and goes all the way to the top of the wall. 11d and 5 stars, check it out.

So I went to an open practice/scrimmage for the Vancouver Canucks the other day, it was free to the public, and I must say that it was great to get an opportunity to see the team up close without having to pay. While it was not the caliber or intensity of an NHL game it was still impressive to see some of the speed and skill on display.

I was browsing NHL.com and I came across some videos created by EA sports to demonstrate the new rules for this year (There is currently a little link on the right hand side of the page). EA is based out of Vancouver and all the clips featured the Canucks against the Flames, with the Canucks schooling the Flames. Nice and subtle... Can't wait for the season to start!

Well I just returned from another Youth World Climbing Championships. This one was in Beijing followed by a little climbing in Thailand.

The comp was very well run and although I was disappointed with the results of the Canadian team we still had the most number of climbers in the top 10 that we have ever had. I just think we could have been slightly better.

After the comp I travelled to Thailand (I'll post some photos soon) where it was way too hot to even think about climbing. I climbed a little but sat in the shade and drank banana-pineapple shakes mostly. What climbing I did do was amazing though. The place is paradise and I strongly recommend checking it out someday.

Sorry no rants or raves lately, I've been a little busy. How about a quick update? The NHL is starting in two months (still seems like forever away), Todd Bertuzzi is reinstated, I leave for China tomorrow to coach the national team, then on to Thailand. Oh yeah, and I'm moving when I get back. Should be interesting. I'm going to try and post something about the Asian experience.

So the players and the owners in the NHL have reached an agreement "in principle" to end the lockout. What pisses me off the most is that I have no choice but to support the league and players again next year. I can't help it (I blame my father). I would like nothing better than to be able to boycott the people who made me miss a season of beer and burgers. At the same time all I want is for the next season to start, to cheer on the Canucks, to see Todd Bertuzzin in uniform again and for the Canucks to finally win the Stanley Cup!
You can't just watch the NHL and claim you aren't supporting them by not going to the games. Buying beer is supporting the NHL, buying the Vancouver Sun to read Gary Mason's articles means supporting the NHL, heck even watching Don Taylor give highlights on sportsnet is supporting the NHL.
It sucks I tell you!

Oh well, GAME ON!

This past weekend was the 2005 Canadian Junior National Championships at Vic's Vertical Walls in Saskatoon. I was fortunate enough to be able to routeset with the famous Rich Castillo and we were treated very well by the staff of Vic's and the organizers. While the comp was a success (at least from my standpoint) I want to thank Sue Holowach and Mark Klopoushak for going out of their way to make Rich and I feel welcome. Results

While you won't find Petzl or Arc'terx as one of my sponsors I have to give them credit for putting on an incredible weekend in Squamish for the 2005 Petzl Roc Trip. They brought an incredible amount of energy and donated lots of money to the Access Society. I know they were disappointed with the number of climbers in the open competitions but I think overall the weekend was a success. I had a great time at the party Saturday night, thanks guys.

First off I just want to say that obviously the sponsorship scandal issues revolve arounded wasted taxpayer money and corrupt government officials at some level of government. My problem with this whole thing is, what's the big deal? Since when did anyone ever actually trust politicians? Is 200 million dollars of government waste really that big of a surprise? Is it worth calling an election over? Does anyone really want that creepy Stephen Harper guy (an opportunistic-power-hungry-george bush-wannabe) to represent Canada as our Prime Minister?

One can go on and on about the problems with the Liberal government but there are several issues that I feel strongly about that the Liberals stand for; balanced budgets, paying down the deficit, human rights, separation of religion and politics... basically everything the Conservative party doesn't stand for. If an election was called right now I'd like to see a Liberal/NDP majority with the Liberals having more seats. The Green party... hmmm... I'm not quite ready to believe they have the platform ready to govern all aspects of the nation. I don't mind the NDP except that they are closely tied with unions (IMO you have the right to quit, not to strike. Don't like how you're being treated, get a new job. What's that? You can't get a new job paying $30/hr to load cars on a ferry, or to work an assembly line? Oh I'm sorry. BTW - teachers should be better paid.)

Sorry, what was I going on about? Oh yeah. How can any self-respecting Canadian actually want a Conservative government? I'm proud to be Canadian. I'm proud we didn't go to the fake war in Iraq (as an aside... who made the rule the democracy was the best form o government? I'd make a damn good dictator :) ). We need a new election but just to get the Conservatives out of the House of Commons.

This is more of a pre-rant. Just waiting to see if the Conservative party tries to draw out an early election then I'll let loose with a rant...

I apologize right now since most of this is probably wrong.

My youngest brother (Liam) is graduating from RMC (Royal Military College) this spring after four years as a cadet. One of the things he participated in as a cadet was a competition between Canadian, American and British Cadets called the Sandhurst competition. Each year the Canadians send one team, the British send two teams and the Americans select several teams (32 I think) from their different divisions. For the last several years (since '94) the competition has been won by one of the British teams. Last year the Canadians placed 2nd and this year they won!!
Results and a lot more information can be found here

I just came back from almost two weeks in Smith Rock, Oregon where I was working and climbing. It was great, a little cold somedays but I could've climbed every day if it wasn't for my skin and needing to rest. I also managed to get alot of work done which was good so I know that I can do it again in the future some time.
Check out some of the new photos in the Smith Rock gallery.

WHAT A SHOW!! Krankenstein 2005 is over and I think it came out amazingly well. I was a routesetter for this event and I was a little stressed about both the mens and womens categories.
On the mens side we had Jason Holowach and Sean McColl tied going into final, both having fallen twice in the qualifiers. I was wondering how it was going to be possible to separate them. Using ICC format the climber pretty much has to get to the top in order for the route to count, that means that the routes have to be possible, but if they are too easy then both Sean and Jason flash them and they remain tied. Sean topped out all four problems falling twice again while noone else finished problems 3 and 4.
On the womens side I didn't want both Vikki Weldon and Sydney McNair to flash the final problems becuase then it would go to qualifier results where Sydney had one fall. Fortunately Sydney flashed all four problems while Vikki flashed three of them, giving us a clear winner and a great show.

Maybe it's just because I was involved with the setting but I couldn't believe how well it worked out. All the problems were completed by at least one competitor, there were some dramatic changes in features for the comp and a swing start to a boulder problem that provided some highlights for the crowd. I just hope everyone had even half as much fun as I did, thanks for coming and watching it!

Last night I went to go check out the Vancouver International Mountain Film festival where Peter Croft and Sonnie Trotter were doing shows. I was psyched to see this for two reasons; Sonnie was presenting a movie that I had heard about and, well, Peter Croft is Peter Croft. 'Nuff said.

Peter's presentation was great, very relaxed, great photos, good stories, good comparisons (a 40lb pack is like a fat ass, you just get used to it) and well, Peter Croft is Peter Croft.

I was a little worried for Sonnie to follow that up. He had been stressing about this for about a month. Well it turned out awesome! I was laughing, sometimes at Sonnie, sometimes at the movie, sometimes at the drawings. I enjoyed the film, seeing some friends and the slideshow.

Then there was a film called "Call it Karma" which was really good, amazing colours and the story of a Tibetan monk and how he ended up in Vancouver. It was unfortunate that quite a few people left earlier. Granted we had all been sitting for quite some time but it was worth it. Geoff Brown was the producer/director/film maker I believe.

All in all a great night. Thanks guys.

I've been so busy lately but it sure would be nice to have some hockey to watch.
Check out takebackthecup.com and sign up. The NHL doesn't own the Stanley Cup so it should be given out. Can you imagine being a major junior player and playing for the cup!!!

Now I know that living in Vancouver I should expect rain, and I do, but this is getting ridiculous. This storm they are calling the "Tropical Punch" is dumping more rain than I have ever seen.

All I want to do is climb outside! Last weekend I hiked up to a climbing area near Seattle called Exit 32 (World Wall 1). Audrey pointed out some really amazing looking routes and now all I want to do is climb again. This weather is killing me and it doesn't look like I'll get down to Smith Rocks for at least a couple more weekends. Oh well. Time to train and get strong so those outdoor days are just that much more satisfying.

So far 2005 has been an amazing year...
Not really too much more to say.

The Tsunamis that have hit Southeast Asia have left me stunned. A place that is supposed to be paradise for many has been destroyed. I have friends that are over in Thailand for climbing vacations and I was worried for them. I have since heard that the climbing areas of Thailand were not too badly affected. I can't imagine that while I was sitting enjoying Christmas with my family other families were being torn apart, and the death toll keeps rising.

The Canadian Red Cross www.redcross.ca is accepting donations to help with the international relief effort.
Doctors without Borders.
Care Canada

Although we may feel helpless we can help by donating. The truly helpless ones are the poor and less fortunate who have been devastated by this. Rather than feel distraught or glum, help out and do it with a smile.

Ahhh Christmas Time!!. I haven't been excited about a christmas in awhile. Usually so busy that it's more stressful than anything. Granted I've been busy at work lately but I plan to head up to Big White with my family, eat, snowboard and watch the World Junior Championships as Canada goes for GOLD! Looking forward to it.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone.

Check out this link. 'Nuff said...
Please bring back the game...

A big thanks goes out to the staff and volunteers at StoneGardens in Seattle for hosting yet another successful Seattle Bouldering Challenge competition. 150 competitors from throughout the pacific northwest participated and had tons of fun. I'm always amazed by this competition. During the scramble format on Saturday morning the competitors had, and needed, five hours to try and climb some cool problems. Then came a dyno comp where I swear I saw people defy gravity. The finals for the expert category were held in the evening, unfortunately I was participating so I wasn't able to see the event but from the feedback I've heard the staff put on a good event, and the climbers put on a good show. The after party was nice and mellow with a couple free kegs of beer and air hockey. Thanks guys.

I can honestly say that the US elections depressed me. I can't comprehend or even begin to understand how more than 58 million people voted for Bush. What am I missing? Am I uninformed? Do we not get accurate media coverage in Canada? Forget the war on terror, forget Irag and that whole fiasco, how can someone who is running a country into the ground ($600 billion deficit, $7.5 trillion debt) get re-elected? Now fortunately I don't live in the US and am proud to be a Canadian but obviously the person that is running the US does affect me and other people throughout the world. I actually watched the debates this year (no hockey), and try to keep up to date on the news and political issues and I am really confused.

Here is a link to a page that compares IQ of a state with the candidate voted for. From that page you can also link to charts showing income and education (college or university degrees) with the candidate voted for. If these statistics are true (and I'm not one to put alot of faith in IQ, or that an entire state can have an average IQ of 85) why is this so? Do people not really educate themselves on the issues. Is it simply that "God" wants people to vote for Bush and that's what people believe?

I was talking with a friend about this last night and maybe we have to travel down there and talk to some people to try and figure out what they are thinking.

What's going to happen in the next four years now that Dubya doesn't have to worry about being re-elected? When the price of gas in the US hits $4/gallon? When the national debt hits $10 trillion?

I spend alot of time in the United States and have a great time when I am down there, so don't think that I am US bashing, I'm policy bashing and there's a big difference.

Well I just came back from Smith Rocks in Oregon and had a great weekend. A friend of mine named Ben Moon was recently diagnosed and operated on for colorectal cancer and there was a fundraiser this weekend to help raise funds for him (Moon Cancer Fund). I must say I was very surprised with the turnout.

Ben is well known in the climbing community and his photos have appeared in numerous climbing and athletic publications. Around 400 people showed up for the dinner and silent auction. I couldn't believe the number of items being auctioned, everything from climbing gear, to a 3 day porshe rental, to restaurant certificates and even a Gerry Lopez signed poster! Ian and Kristin Yurdin (and all the volunteers) deserve tons of credit for putting this event on.

Many climbers travelled to attend Ben's fundraiser and it was awesome seeing people that I may only see once every 2-3 years. I guess that's why this is a rave, I had an amazing time hanging out with friends and climbing for the four days that I was there. Smith Rock State Park was crawling with people.

Also a big thanks to Mark and Sierra for allowing us to stay at their hostel for international and/or sponsored climbers :)

This is probably the same thing you hear from tons of people but I can't stand most people's highway driving etiquette.

If you are from Alberta you can drive fast in a straight line but you can't turn a corner. If you are from BC you think that going 1km/h over the speed limit entitles you to drive from Vancouver to Squamish in the fast lane whenever possible, or to drive the exact same speed as the person in the right lane until the last minute!!

Here's how it's supposed to work; you maintain a speed around corners and on a straight stretch. If someone is on your ass on the corners and there's more corners coming up then let them by on the next passing lane or straight stretch. If you are not in the ACTIVE state of passing then get out of the left lane.

I drive a pickup without alot of power and it doesn't handle great in the corners but I still manage to maintain speed through most of corners, why can't someone in a brand new BMW?

LEARN TO DRIVE PEOPLE!!

These guys support me so I'd appreciate it if you support them.

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