Today marks one year on the road for Audrey and I and when we first started out in the back of my mind I was wondering if I could climb 100 5.13a and above routes in year. Things weren't looking too good at the end of July when I still needed 30+ routes. Heck things weren't looking too good this morning when I woke up with a sore side, still needed five routes and I'm in the New River Gorge, an area known for being difficult if you're short.

Friday night we went to a dinner/volunteers meeting for Audrey and the Sterling weekend. I was hoping to meet up with Kevin Wilkinson who was in the process of driving out here with Alli Rainey for the same event. Unfortunately they were still on the road but hopefully would be here late in the evening and Kev and I could climb together the following day.

Sure enough Kevin and Alli had rolled in pretty late and we met up with them Saturday morning. Audrey and Alli were guiding/teaching a clinic so Kev and I loaded up the van and went out climbing. I knew Kevin would be psyched on The Colliseum so we headed out there. With the three day drive just completed Kevin wasn't feeling his usual energetic self so instead of wasting efforts on Apollo Reed or Mercy Seat we decided to try a different route called BC. Looking at the route it was pretty apparent the crux was near the top but we didn't think the crux would be the very last move. Kevin roped up for the onsight and dispatched the bottom pretty quickly. He actually made it through the first upper crux and I thought he might onsight it but then the last move reared up. The last move is a huge reach over a bulge off a weird finger lock left hand hold. You think that if you fall you'll leave a few fingers behind. Kevin sorted out the move and came down. I roped up but wasn't sure how well I'd be able to climb with my lower right side still feeling quite tender. I didn't even get through the first hard move near the top before falling. My side was sore but it didn't affect me as much as I thought it might. Truth was I just screwed up the feet and fell. I worked it to the top but the last move terrified me. I ended up having to grab an intermediate, move my feet up and throw with all my might to the final hold. A low percentage move for sure. Kevin roped back up but it was pretty evident in the first few bolts that his driving hangover was setting in. He didn't have the power reserves left in him to get back through that first crux and ended up just coming down. I tied in even though I didn't think I'd do the route and managed to get up to the last move and still feel pretty fresh. I lasered in the last holds and barely tagged the finish hold, moving my right foot up and committing my weight to it hurt my side but I managed to hang in there and clip the finishing hold. Phew. After that we wasted our time trying a short 13a on a boulder near the ladder and then headed over to the Narcissist Cave. There was a 13b there I wanted to try and a classic 12a called Narcissist. The 13b had spider webs all over it but the climbing still looked quite fun. I onsighted up to the last two bolts where the hard climbing started and proceeded to fall repeatedly. I just couldn't generate enough momentum for those moves. We ticked off the Narcissist and called it a day. Sterling was hosting a barbecue for their weekend and we were invited. Yes it was a women's weekend, and yes I felt like we were intruding but it was free food and beer and I had plenty of both. Also Sterling made it official that Audrey was now a member of their team. She is very happy about that and deserves is, now she can stop wearing out my ropes haha:)

So today I woke up and knew I needed to redpoint 5, 5.13 or harder routes. I don't think I've ever done 5 new 5.13 routes in a day so I didn't really have my hopes up. I had recruited a local climber, Stephen Meinhold, to show me around and give me beta. Kevin was game for moral support and belay duty so after breakfast the three of us headed off for an area called Beauty Mountain. After warming up on a 10c, and 11d and a 12b I felt ready to start trying some 5.13s. The first route I got on was a super short 13a called Super Mario. With Stephen's beta I managed to flash it; 1 down and 4 to go. I then walked up the hill to try a short 13b just on the other side of the boulder from Super Mario. Stephen had said that he thought I'd have to jump for a few of the moves but that I should try it. Little did he know that I can't, absolutely can not, jump. I tried the first long move probably ten times then found a cheating way around it to the left only to get shut down at the next jump move. I was wasting skin and energy and the prospect of getting four more 5.13s was not looking good. We decided to bail on that area and head for a cave called The Glory Hole, a nice steep cave with mostly endurance climbs. With Stephen's beta I quickly flashed Massacre and Blood Raid, both long, consistent routes. Next up I tried Burning Cross a route with an incredibly difficult last move. I flashed up to it but couldn't figure it out on my first go. I barely could do the move from the dog and was pretty sure the hold I was using was going to break but needing two more 5.13s I lowered off, rested a bit and went up again. The last move was still super hard but I managed to stick the right hand, move the left foot up and throw for the finishing jug. Only one more route needed. This is where Kevin really came to the rescue. He tied in and although he was tired he got on a short 5.13 on the far left of the wall to get me beta. He worked his way out the route cleaning holds, brushing away spider webs, and finding some great beta. I didn't fire it first go but after some minor beta tweaking I did do it next try! I had my 5 5.13 routes done and had succeeded on 100 in a year. That last route was super desperate and I'm glad Kevin and Stephen were there for beta and encouragment.

So while 100 5.13 routes isn't a big deal, in fact it's pathetic compared to Steve McLures 100 5.13b onsights or flashes in a year, it did provide some additional motivation over the last few weeks and I'm glad I did it. I think from now on I'll try and work on harder routes at areas with low 5.13s coming as warm-ups or at the end of the day. I really need to work on my strength/power. So harder routes and bouldering are definitely on the agenda.

The New River Gorge in West Virginia is AMAZING! The sandstone reminds me of a mix between The Grampians and The Blue Mountains in Australia, simply Amazing. Oh yeah, so far I hate the new guidbook. We've wasted way too much time trying to find climbing areas. We arrived Tuesday night and so far have climbed only two days, just enough for me to injure myself :)

We left Rumney on Sunday night, drove about 10 hours to Elyria where we spent the day visiting with Audrey's Sister and her family. The best thing was that Danny (Audrey's brother-in-law) hooked me up with a Honda CBR600 and we spent a few hours riding around. Just around the city but we did take a small detour into this park where I tried to open it up a bit. It's been a few years since I was on a bike and that few hours definitely rekindled the desire to get another one. The following day we drove down to West Virginia and I called up a buddy named Porter Jarrard who lives just on the edge of the New River Gorge in Fayetteville. For those of you who don't know the name Porter Jarrard you obviously haven't climbed in the southeast at all. The guy is pretty much responsible for most of the development that happened at areas like the Red River Gorge. He spent years cruising around with a drill and plucking all the gems from the area. I was psyched to meet up with him again and hopefully get him to show us around some of the climbs.

Wednesday was hot and humid and since Porter couldn't come out with us he recommended a few climbs. He told me to head on down to the Central Endless Wall and check out a route called Titan's Dice. So we headed on over there but on the way to Titan's I was distracted by a few other routes that the guidebook had described as classic and fell off most of them. So I didn't even get to Titan's and Porter was disappointed and scolded me for not listening to him... I guess I should've known better.

Since it was still pretty warm on Thursday we went to an area called Summersville Lake, or more specifically to an area called The Colliseum. There were quite a few low 5.13 classic routes there including an amazing 5.13 called Apollo Reed that quite a few people had been raving about. We warmed up at a short wall right near the ladder and Audrey barely missed stepping on a Copperhead snake. It was literally inches from her foot but fortunately didn't feel threatened and strike at her. After warming up we moved on to The Colliseum. The Colliseum was an amazingly steep wall which was a welcome site after climbing vertical, crimpy and bouldery routes the day before. Not only is it a great looking cliff but you are right at the edge of the lake so the scenery and setting is amazing as well. I managed to onsight Apollo even though I mis-read the sequence quite badly. Audrey tried it and manage to work it up to the top crux but the steep climbing is still messing with her so she lowered from there. Next up I tried Mercy Seat, another classic 5.13 but this time when I screwed up the beta there was no recovering other than falling and pulling back up. Second go on that one. I then tried a route called The Pod. I probably should've onsighted this one as well but I just didn't have it in me. On my second go I stuck the crux move but as I pulled up I felt the whole lower right side of my torso just seize up. I could barely breathe and I couldn't push or pull with my right leg. I didn't want to give up the redpoint so I climbed the rest of the route with just my left foot. When I reached the ground my lower-right back and my right oblique muscles were seized up. I tried to stretch it a bit but I guessed I had pulled them so stretching wasn't a great idea. That ended my day and we packed it up and hiked out.

Today the weather was much nicer but we were really slow moving. We wanted to go to an area called Beauty Mountain. I wasn't going to climb much, my side was quite tender to touch but was no longer tight and seized up. On our way to Beauty Mountain we ended up getting lost and parking in various places. The directions in the guide said to pull off roughly one mile past a landmark and follow a dirt road to the cliff. We tried several dirt roads near the mile marker but they were all private driveways and I'm not very comfortable walking up people's driveways here in the southeast, there's just too many guns. We finally decided to drive a little farther hoping to find a separate parking area that was a longer hike it. It was only after we had driven another half mile or so that we saw the pullout. By then it was hot and we were sick of hiking on dirt roads so we didn't climb at all today. Probably a good thing. Instead of climbing we went and looked at the bridge that crosses the New River Gorge, apparently the longest arched bridge in the western hemisphere. That was pretty much our day. Hopefully my side will heal overnight and I can climb tomorrow. Audrey is volunteering at a Sterling Rope Women's Weekend, the weather looks great and all I need is a climbing partner and my side to heal.

It was a quick visit but at least I managed to do some climbing in New Hampshire. In the past week I managed to climb one day at Cathedral Ledge, and four days at Rumney - both areas that I have wanted to visit for awhile. Despite feeling tired and run down from the previous week's festivities I still managed to drag myself up some routes and almost felt human again by the end of the week.

Last Monday Audrey, Matt, my mom, my dad and I ended up going up to North Conway and staying in a friend's cabin right near Catheral Ledge. It took us awhile to get out of Boston and we took our time driving up, stopping for some food in Plymouth and arriving at the cabin in the dark. Tuesday was my birthday (30th) and I wanted to get out climbing (one, maybe two-track mind). Audrey wasn't feeling well so my Mom, my brother Matt and I headed up to Cathedral Ledge for a day of crack and slab climbing. I started on a 10a that felt pretty hard and my mom refused to try before going down a grade and doing a few 5.9s. To finish the day off my brother and I simul-climbed a three pitch 5.6 route that was pretty fun That evening we had dinner back at the cabin and of course birthday cake. I received an XM satellite radio for my birthday and I'm psyched! Now I should be able to catch all the Canucks games this winter :)

The following day Audrey and I drove a few hours west to a climbing area called Rumney. Again Audrey wasn't feeling well so I went exploring by myself. Unfortunately I didn't find anyone I knew, nor anyone who was trying routes I was interested in but at least I got a chance to look at a few cliffs. My first impression was actually disappointment. For some reason I had expected bigger cliffs but generally the routes looked quite short and bouldery. On Thursday Audrey managed to muster up enough energy to hike out and do a few pitches on the Bonsai wall. I did a few pitches there and then went up to Waimea. By the time we got up there however it was really warm out (86F/30C) and the sun was blazing. I tried to onsight a 13a called Butt Bongo Fiesta but my shoe rubber was litterally sliding off the wall. I actually fell at the last move and was too warm to even think about trying it again. Audrey was game again Friday and we went back to Bonsai/Waimea. I did Butt Bongo and tried to flash Charlie Don't Surf but failed and settled for a second try redpoint.

On Saturday I was left to find my own climbing partners and hiked up to the Orange Crush crag. I sat there for awhile watching climbers and finally built up enough guts to use my pathetic french and ask for a belay from two climbers (Julien and Mathieu) from Quebec. They were warming up on 11+ so I figured they'd probably be good partners. Sure enough the next route they had in mind was a class 13b called Predator which was actually the route I wanted to do. The route was supposed to be an ubber-classic and due to the ease with which a profile photo can be taken I'm sure it'll pass Chain Reaction as one of the most photographed routes in the world. After doing the 11+ we all scrambled up to the belay ledge for Predator. Mathieu went first and fell at pretty much the last move, Julien went second and succeeded on his redpoint and with their combined beta I managed to flash it leading Mathieu to comment that "That didn't look like your first 5.13b", and no it wasn't but it ranks up there with the best of them. After that they took off to a different wall and there were a few more climbs that I wanted to try but I had lost my confidence in just walking up to people and asking for a belay. It was late in the afternoon and most people were attempting their projects so I didn't want to get in the way. I ended up quiting for the day and going back to camp. Fortunately on Sunday Audrey was willing to try climbing again and we went back to Orange Crush. Audrey started the day by climbing a 30m 11a which I followed to clean and then I tried a 13b called King Cobra. Another climber for Quebec, Alex, was trying it and I had seen a small portion of the route from him. I didn't flash it, the crux moves were pretty reachy and I just left my feet to low once I had committed to the sequence. I barely managed to do it second try, I felt the crux was quite tough. Audrey tried King Cobra and then following that she onsighted an 11+ but since she was still feeling incredibly tired she didn't want to try anything else. I finished off the day by flashing two 13as at the same wall. I actually felt bad about that since both routes were being tried by people there and I never know a polite way to climb someone else's project. I thanked them for their beta and left. I don't know, maybe I'm just a jerk.

That was pretty much our week. We spent most of it in Rumney and although my initial impression of the area was disappointment I definitely want to go back. I think some of the harder routes look amazing and would need quite a bit of time to work them. Next up - The New River Gorge!

Congratulations Frank and Becca! The wedding was amazing and even the weather decided to cooperate.

Audrey and I spent most of the past week trying to run errands and help out with the last minute details that were needed for the wedding. We managed to get to a climbing gym in Woburn once and tried to use the fitness facilities at my parents' hotel but I don't think it quite made up for all the beers I drank combined with cookies and delicious meals. I think I put on about 10lbs. Seriously.

We arrived on Tuesday and by Thursday evening my whole family was in town including the newest addition to the Doyle clan, my new nephew Evan (Josh's son). As many of you know I've got four brothers (yes that makes five boys) and all of us went out Thursday night for some beers. We almost didn't make it downtown since our cab driver was an idiot and we ended up having to call Frank (who was already downtown) to give us directions. After closing down the one bar Frank knew that was open late (it still closed at 2am) we headed back to Frank's house in two cabs and for the first time in my life I had the opportunity to say "Follow that cab!". Unfortunately our cab driver wasn't too good at following since he ended up in front of Frank's cab and we took a rather detoured way back. Then to take a cab back to the hotel we had to give our driver directions. I couldn't believe it! Three taxi drivers in one night that all had no idea where to go.

Friday was our tuxedo fitting and the rehearsal followed by the rehearsal dinner. Again great food, good beer and good company. We didn't stay out too late since most of us were exhausted from the previous night. Saturday morning was cold and raining but by 2pm it had started to clear up and by the time the photos had begun the sun was out although it was still a little cold. All five of us boys went and dressed in our tuxedos at the hotel. Actually Liam pretty much had to dress me. I had no idea how to do cuff links, tuxedo buttons and the hankerchief in the pocket. Cut me some slack... I live in a van :). Of course we all looked ridiculously handsome in our tuxedos but we paled in comparison to the bride and Evan in his little tuxedo. Seriously, that kid got all the attention :(. The ceremony was outside and it went great, other than me bursting into laughter seeing my mom hold her camera up (backwards) and take a picture of herself, hahaha. The reception was fantastic although it shut down at 11 and we all headed to a local pub for additional beers and socializing. Around 1am it was off to bed.

Today we woke up around 9 and drove over to Frank and Becca's for a brunch and ceremonial tree planting. Of course Matt and I dug the hole while Frank watched but he and Becca planted the tree. Hopefully it doesn't grow too big and take out the overhead power lines... :) After the tree planting we went to go play ultimate in a nearby park but with the huge breakfast sitting heavy in a few peoples bellies that didn't really shape up into much of a game. Late in the afternoon we headed to downtown Boston to do the Patriot Walk, a walk that takes you through some famous stops that highlight the War of Independance. Stops such as; Paul Revere's house and Bunker Hill. Of course from a Canadian perspective we really know that they were all just traitors and rebels :). After the walk we went to a pub to watch a New England Patriots game and then called it a night.

I'm hoping to get up to a climbing area called Cathedral Ledge to do some traditional multi-pitch climbing with my mom and a few of my brothers. Basically I'm just hoping to get outside and get some exercise!

How do I make 5 days of driving an exciting read? Talk about climbing of course!

We left Bend late, around 9pm and Audrey took the first driving shift. I had been up late the night before and needed a little sleep. I took over around 11 and drove until 4 when we were on the I-90 just past Spokane. Audrey then drove a few hours before pulling over in a rest area for us to sleep. I only slept about an hour before driving again. Our goal for the day was Ten Sleep, Wyoming and I wanted to get there before it was really late at night. We were heading there to meet up with Kevin Wilkinson and Alli Rainey for a day of climbing at her home crag. I had only met Alli at the tradeshow this year but after hearing how excited she was of the climbing around Ten Sleep and seeing some photos I was convinced to check it out. It wasn't that far off our path either which was great since it broke up the drive a bit. Audrey took a large chunk of the driving from around noon while I worked in my 'office' in the back of the van. We pulled up to Alli's house around 6:30 and met up with a tired Kevin and Alli. I guess Jay Beyer (photographer from Salt Lake City) had been up the past few days and had run them ragged making them climb four days in a row for photo shoots. Nevertheless they were game for some climbing the following day. After a quick dinner Audrey and I headed to bed, with all of three hours sleep the night before I was pretty tired.

The area of the crag we were heading to was really cold in the mornings so we waited until around noon before heading out. As we drove up the canyon I was amazed by the amount of rock around. Apparently the sandstone around is really chossy but the limestone (and variations of limestone) is all quite solid. We headed to an area called Super Attic with hopes of moving up to The Cattle Ranch later. The hike itself was a welcome workout after spending a day in the van and with Alli pushing the pace it was a great warm-up. Audrey and I started on a long 5.10b climb that was very similar to Meathooks at Grassi Lake in the Canadian Rockies, complete with a few fractured holds that felt like they should break but didn't. After that I onsighted a super cool 5.12b called Behemoth, the climb went straight up the middle of this sparsely pocketed face and the pockets themselves were quite small and a little tweaky. The pockets always seemed to allow one finger to go deeper than the others causing that finger to be isolated. The movement itself was great and Audrey redpointed it after me. I then tried to onsight a route Hellion that I mistakingly thought was 13a, but turned out to be around mid-5.13. This route was the best one I got on there and I thought it deserved 5 stars for sure. The climbing was quite sustained without a lot of variations for handholds but options for feet. I didn't onsight it and in fact it took me four of five tries since I kept falling down low, untying, pulling the rope and going again. Kevin and Alli were also working the route but I selfishly hogged the climb for probably over an hour. Thanks guys! After the climbing Audrey and I hopped in the van, made a quick dinner and Audrey started driving for the I-90 and east.

I took over around 11:30pm somewhere in South Dakota. I swear somewhere during this drive there was at least a three hour period where I didn't see another vehicle travelling in my direction. So with all that free time I had lots of time to think about how to bring about world peace, solve world hunger or find a cure for cancer but instead I thought about climbing, work and rocked out to my MP3 player which of course brought about the internal debate; Pink Floyd vs Led Zeppelin or Guns 'n Roses vs Bon Jovi... I'll let you fight those out. It was a nice sunrise and soon after I had to pull over and let Audrey take over again. 7 hours through the night takes its toll on me.

After more than 24 hours straight we made it to Elyria, Oh, around 10pm after battling with traffic in Chicago. We thought traffic wouldn't be that bad since it was a Saturday but boy were we wrong. Audrey had promised her niece that we would be there for her birthday which was Sunday. We visited briefly with Audrey's sister's family then crashed out for the night. On Sunday we went for a brunch with Audrey's family and some friends then returned home where I did some work and prepared for Victoria's (Audrey's niece) birthday. After dinner I played some touch football and then stayed up late working.

Monday was a short drive. We were headed for Ithaca, NY to visit with Audrey's uncle Tony, a professor at Cornell. We stopped at Niagra Falls on the way and walked across the rainbow bridge but didn't actually cross through Canadian customs. We arrived in Ithaca around 7pm, Tony cracked open a bottle of champagne and then we went out for some Thai food. Tuesday morning I went for a quick hike in Treman state park just outside of Ithaca and then we were once again on the I-90 headed east. As we approached Boston I called my Dad and got directions to my brother, Frank's, home. We have finally arrived in Boston, on the far side of the continent and are looking forward to a few relaxing days and the wedding this weekend.

Well, after 11 months on the road we are pretty much back were we started. The van is loaded and pointed east, we've started out trip with a quick visit to Smith Rock and we're slowly getting used to being in a tight space again. We only climbed in Smith three days but we managed to visit with friends, climb some classic lines and of course play a little fetch with Casey, the best darn dog in the world (and yes Matt I realize this will probably cost us our friendship but Barnum is a close second).

We left Kelowna and headed for Squamish where we were hoping to get in a few days of climbing. The weather gods didn't like that idea very much and we only bouldered for one evening before driving down to Seattle, sorting out the remainder of our gear and heading down to Smith. We didn't leave Seattle until quite late and only drove part way down to Smith, stopping to sleep and continuing our drive on Monday. We arrived in the early afternoon and managed to get a few pitches done with Ben Moon and Tim Garland down at the North Point, a subsection of the lower gorge. The routes were sport routes but short and more varied that the typical Smith Rock routes. We did a couple classic 5.11 and low 5.12 pitches and I decided to try and do a 5.13a down there called Havana Smack. The route itself was quite short, only four bolts long but the first bolt was about 20' in the air. I'm assuming you are supposed to have a stick clip but we didn't and I've been reading too much about Sonnie Trotter and Will Stanhope so I ended up just climbing to the first bolt. Yup, a whole 20' with no protection! Pretty balsy wasn't it :). Actually it was kind of scary since the final moves leading to the bolt were pretty hard and the clip itself was quite insecure. After clipping the first bolt though I was pretty much half way up the route. From there it was; climb two moves, rest, climb two more moves, rest, etc... until the top. A pretty fun route all in all.

It was forecast to rain Tuesday (only took a few days for the rain to follow us from Squamish) but we decided to try and climb anyways. Before even warming up we were huddled with a couple other climbers underneath Churning waiting for the rain to pass. During a brief break we scrambled up Overboard and then I decided to try Churning since it looked dry. I've done Churning itself probably hundreds of times but there are two extensions; Churning in the Sky - 5.13a and Churning in the Ozone that I had not been able to do before. There was one move on the slab that was quite reachy and if you are shorter you have to pull off a bad crimp and a sloping mono, something I've never been able to commit to before. Somehow I convinced myself to try the Sky variation and when I hit the hard move I actually felt like I could pull on the mono, so I did and stuck the move first try. I only finished up the right hand Sky variation since it was still raining and the upper slab was a little wet. I'm hoping my success on that reachy move will translate over to successon Dog Leg in the Red River Gorge next month. Hopefully... The rain didn't show any signs of letting up so we decided to head into Bend to run some errands. We stopped by the Metolius factory, had a good chat with Brooke Sandahl, grabbed some new gear and headed off downtown. After doing some shopping we called up Ben Moon and asked if we could come over to see some of his photos from Australia. Ben was in Arapiles when we were there in March and had taken some photos of Audrey on Henry Bolte and of me on Punks in the Gym. We sat in front of Ben's computer flipping through photos for over an hour. Some of the photos were really good and I can't wait to see the ones of Sonnie and Will being used in publications. That evening Sierra made us a super tasty dinner and we showed her some photos of the trip before heading out to the van, Audrey to go to sleep and me to do some work.

The following day quite a few people were coming out to go climbing. It was supposed to be warmer than Tuesday and we wanted to get an early start before the sun started baking the main walls. After the typical warm-ups I decided to try Churning in the Ozone, I once again barely managed to pull the slab move and was now faced with the prospect of onsighting the upper mid-5.12 section. The feet were quite bad and with the sun just coming around the corner the lighting made it hard to see what was good and what wasn't. After a few tricky moves heading left I climbed up to what appeared to be another big move. I'm surprised Brian didn't take me off belay as I used some unapproved beta and pulled off a bad sidepull to help get a little more reach. After that it was just a nice stroll up to the top. The sun was making it uncomfortable quickly and we headed off into Agro Gully to continue our quest for punishment. Sierra managed to convince Audrey to try a 12a at the bottom of the gully called Highway to Hell. Both Audrey and I had been on it over a year ago and neither of us had particularly fond memories of the route. I remember it being a little runout and hard, I honestly thought it was rated 12c. But Audrey tied in and started up, firing off the first series of hard moves with ease and then missing some feet through the crux and falling. She quickly sorted that section and went to the top paving the way for her to dispatch it quickly the next go. Sierra made the bottom moves look really easy as well, moves that I remember being really desperate so needless to say I passed on trying to the route. No point in embarassing myself. Instead I tried a route called Mama Dakas (sp?), a route that splits off Agro Monkey just above the lip. Last year Derek Galloway did it super quick and tried to convince me into trying it but with the caveat that he "wanted to see how I'd do the reach", so I've never really tried the route before. Ian Caldwell gave me some beta and sure enough there was a big move on it. The weird thing is that the move wasn't a typical Smith Rock big move. Usually in Smith the big moves involve reaching off good feet and if you are tall you can keep your feet low but if you are short you generally have to hike your feet up on worse feet and do the same move. On this route however all the feet were bad, so although the move was big I'm not sure it's much harder if you are short. I spent a little bit of time trying to figure out a different sequence and after breaking some holds (serves me right, using unapproved beta again) I managed to do the move with Ian's beta. I climbed to the top and thought I might get it second try. However I was dumb on my second try and after sticking the big move I went to adjust a hand and my foot slipped, clearly I haven't been climbing in Smith enough.

That evening we went to a brew pub to have dinner with Ian Caldwell and his wife Darryn (who, I am psyched to report, is back climbing), Ian and Kristin Yurdin (who we haven't seen outside of their restaurant since it pretty much opened), Scottish Brian and Mark and Sierra. Mark had just finished guiding the Grand Teton and had only just finished droving 14 hours from Jackson just to have dinner with us (or at least that's what I'd like to think). After dinner Audrey and I were on our way east, a marathon driving session as we try to combine climbing with visiting her family and having to be in Boston by the 12th for my brother's wedding.

So after 11 months I'm excited that I do actually feel stronger climbing. With all the new climbing we've been doing it's hard to have a benchmark but I never feel like I climb well in Smith but this time I did. I love that place though. The climbing itself is challenging and on the outer side of actually fun, but our friends down there always make it such a nice place to hang out. Thanks Guys!