Zion

After a morning climbing three easy routes at the Chuckawalla wall, we headed out to Zion again. This time we avoided the main canyon and drove up across the Kolob plateau and hiked along wilcat trail out to Northgate peaks trail (380 kb Park map here).

We walked back to the trailhead and drove to Lava Point lookout, then down to the West Rim Trailhead, and along the West Rim Trail for a few miles, where we saw a lot of desert horned lizards. On the way back, the light was perfect for some pictures of Cave Valley and Blue Springs Reservoir. We definitely want to go back to hike further next time!



Some medium format scans of Blue Springs Resevoir, and along the road to Kolob Plateau, respectively:

The Cathedral

Today we drove west out of St. George to Welcome Springs and the Cathedral crag, which was spectacular. The hike up takes you past a desert oasis of cottonwoods and streams and through a valley flanked by blue and orange limestone faces. After getting a little lost, we arrived at the Cathdral:



Warmed up on "Pagan Rituals", did the excellent "Worshipping the Limestone Gods", and then walked over to the Wailing Wall. At the wailing wall, I barely onsighted Rising Expectations (not me, but the correct climb):

And then got shut down on one of the 12a's to the right of it. We finished up on "Casting Asperations", walked back to the Cathedral and I unfortunately got pretty shut down on "speaking in tongues". We watched a guy (I think his name was Todd) almost send an incredibly hard looking line in the middle of the cave ("The Incredible Huck?"). There were about 8 people at the crag when we were there, and the atmosphere was great; everyone was willing to give us information about climbs that weren't in the guidebook.

St. George

Today we checked into the excellent Best Western St. George; indoor/outdoor swimming pool, jacuzzi, pool tables, video arcade and perhaps most importantly: a really excellent breakfast. After reorganizing our bags a bit, we set out for the local crag. The Chuckawalla wall is a big chunk of well bolted red sandstone about 5 minutes north of town


whic is really a blast. We worked our way left from the moderates on the right, took a burn on what I think was Armageddon and then onto "As the Crow Flies", which I grunted through on site. I then went back ro armageddon for the redpoint. We really enjoyed all of the climbs on this wall, but paced ourselves and left early to go buy the Todd Goss guidebook. From the climbing store, we continued on to Zion Canyon, but saw the crowds of people and cars and left.

vegas!!

We took an 8:00 PM flight to Las Vegas, rented the car from Payless rent a car (and got completely bait and switched on insurance, upgrade etc; we'll never go there again) and checked into the Hilton. Tomorrow we'll get an early start and head out to St. George, UT, 120 miles north on I15.

kiteboarding

After a few weeks of practicing with a Naish Xeon trainer kite, I had my land lesson today. Basically I learned how to activate the kites safeties, as well as get a feeling for sheeting the kite in and out.

it has begun

Today we saw some guys kiteboarding under the Golden Gate. It looked fantastic, and I finally am getting motivated to take lessons

Sonoma

We visited Scott, Caroline and their two year old son Gabriel (Chloe went to college with Caroline) this weekend. Scott and Carloine took us to four great wineries in Sonoma and Healdsburg: J,


which had great hor d'oeuvres and ok wine (but a little overpriced IMO), then across the parking lot to Rodney Strong, which had a very nice 2003 Zinfandel. I should probably point out that I am in no way a wine afficionado; I dont even know what kind of grapes go into Cotes du Rhone or Bourgogne etc. Zinfandels, however are a new taste for us, as are California wines in general. Here are the impressives barrels at Rodney Strong:


Using Gabriel's Bubble Power

We continued on to Christopher Creek

which also had a nice Zinfandel (2003?)

which we bought one bottle of, as well as a kick-you-in-your-teeth petite syrrah (nothing petite about it though!) which we bought a few bottles of as well. As we sped along to beat the 5:00 pm tasting room closing time, Scott told us that a lot of the culverts and ditches in this area were overflowing with rainwater just a week ago.
The bartender told us that excess water was actually bad for the grape vines, but I cant remember why... something about hardship making the vines angry and compelling them to produce better fruit. I'm not sure, because by this point, I was a little drunk and chloe was taunting me in french whispers. Actually, I dont remember what the name of the winery was or how the wine tasted.


The next day, after Scott and Caroline made us an amazing waffle, smoothie and bacon breakfast, we headed out towards Salt Point State Park for some bouldering and climbing. We drove along the Russian River and were amazed at how far out to sea the silt was being deposited at Jenner

We could only find one boulder, and the climbing turned out a little... poorly. From the tops of the cliffs, the climbs looked great:

pocketed sandstone above azure waves.. with the stunted pine trees and breeze it almost felt like we were back in Provence for a few seconds! Anyway, we followed the directions for where to rapell and ended up on a shelf of rock not very far away from the water. During the course of just a few routes, we both managed to get soaked (Chloe got hit by some impressively huge waves), as did all of our gear and jackets. For some reason there wer barnacles up most of the climbs, despite the fact that I dont see how the ocean ever got that high. Barnacles, despite their fortresslike shells, turn out to be pretty weak, and explode under the pressure of say, a climbing shoe shodden foot for example. It also turns out that barnacle guts are very very slippery, so it was game over whenever I stepped on one. After one impressive barnacle slick, I looked down and watched as my jacket, containing digital camera, cell phone and car keys began to gracefully waft out to sea, despite being laden with so much Important Stuff. I screamed, and chloe managed to rescue it. It would have been sad indeed to loose that jacket after all of the places it has kept me warm. Also, lost car keys would have been bad.

Kenjis Opening

Chloe and I went to Kenji's opening today

toast

I've been settling into our new life slowly. We've been here three months now, and I'm aching to start doing some exploring. What I'm realizing is that because of the long distances in between things compared to europe, a weekend jaunt is a lot less feasible: The Drome used to be two hours away. I'm not sure what is two hours away from the Presidio! Anyway, I'm hophing to have more updates in the coming months as Chloe and I organize trips and find a way to get out of the city. Lately I've been so tired from work that when the weekend arrives, I'm happy to just sleep in! Case in point:
this morning I waited fifteen minutes before I realized that our toaster was unplugged

Adieu, Chaps

I just read that Pierre Chapoutot died a few days in an avalanche. He was a pioneering rock climber and mountaineer, and his first ascents are ubiquitous and numerous, particularly in the Oisans. He maintained a fantastic blog about his adventures which I enjoyed greatly. One of his first ascents was a route up the Bastion Centrale of La Meije, and he generously provided me with detailed information on the route. Here is an excerpt from his emails

If you want a long and beautiful climb without any people, in a splendid atmosphere, you can choose the "Bastion Central" route + upper part of Dibona-Mayer. It is in the same grade as the Pierre Allain, but longer and more sustained. Equipment : all the belays, and few pegs or spits (6 in all !) in the pitches. It ends between 2d and 3d Tooth between the Grand Pic and the Doigt de Dieu, and from this point it is not easy at all to reach the Grand Pic (horrific rappel from 1st Tooth to the Breche Zsigmondy !). So, it is reasonable to choose the way back on the Doigt de Dieu. I think that this route is the most beautiful on the whole South Face... mais c'est un point de vue très personnel


Unfortunately I wasn't able to round up a partner for La Meije before I left, and now I'll never be able to email him back and tell him what a fantastic route it is.

Cable Graveyard

I'm a cable pack rat. Things were better for me in France when I knew I couldn't accumulate too many bits and pieces, but since I've been back in the US, I've reverted to my old ways. The problem is that I've had a big box of cables that I've been carting around since college with all sorts of cabulature in it; it has been living in my parents garage for the last 4 years, so clearly most of the cables aren't really necessary (I also have my Power computing powertower pro in there, and an ancient powerbook 520c in drawer). Anyway, there was the usual fare: many Ethernet cables, RCA cables, RCA to stereo min (somehow I had like 6 of these!), coax, USB, firewire, 2 wire telephone, 4 wire telephone and on and on. However, there were also some really funny things in there which I've documented below. Test your computer savvyness (or age as it might be) by identifying them. Answers are in the nonworking rollovers at the bottom.
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Half Moon Bay

Today we drove south to Castle Rock for a little bouldering, but the rocks were saturated and it was FREEZING. Instead, we wandered around looking for undiscovered boulders and stumbled upon Summit Rock, which looks like it might have a days climbing as well.

We continued on along Skyline blvd, where we came upon power lines which had fallen across the road. A traffic jam was developing, and SUV people were proudly and happily going into FULL OFFROAD MODE and driving around the road. It was magnificent. Chloe and I returned to the last intersection and had a hot dog while we waited for the lines to be cleared. Unfortunately, the lines were still down when we got back, but by now there was a large dirt road from all the off roadin'. On a whim, we took the road down toward the pacific and ended up parking in the fabulous Ritz Carleton Half Moon Bay parking lot (We assumed that they only allow the riff raff in because of some agreement they signed). We walked along the beach,





tried to figure out what was going on with these columns in the headlands


and watched birds get doused by waves