2010 Year End Report

rowrbazzlicious - a big word to move the text below these 2 images.
I grew a ridiculous molestache as you can see here on the left, then I chopped it off as you can see on the right. 

Here are some of the highlights (and lowlights) of 2010 for me.

At the stroke of midnight and the start of 2010 I pulled over on the side of the highway near Russelville and took some photos of fireworks and the Arkansas One nuclear power plant. In the next few days I continued on to Flagstaff where I packed my bags and took the train to LA. There I met up with my girlfriend and found out she was no longer my girlfriend. Then we went to Thailand. The trip wasn't anywhere near as good as I had planned and hoped, but it wasn't that bad considering. Starting out with negligible sleep for 4 or so days made getting over my jet lag a moot point.

In Thailand we went down to Tonsai for the overhanging limestone sport climbing of the Railay peninsula. We also went on a number of rest day excursions to local tourist spots and did some snorkeling in the sea.

We took a break from Thailand and went down to Kuala Lumpur during Chinese New Year to climb at Batu Caves. The climbing wasn't all that great and was a logistics pain (and the weather was starting to monsoon), but the food in KL was most excellent. We returned to Tonsai for a bit more climbing before heading back to Bangkok and then back to the states shortly before the unrest started in Thailand. I took the train back to Flagstaff and starting trying to make sense of my life and some 10,000 photos I had taken. I made some progress with the photos.

I did some climbing trips around Flagstaff and the Sedona area plus trips down to Tam-O'Shanter (climbing) and the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Then I drove back east to attend my 20^th College reunion at Haverford. This was an interesting event. It was great to see and catch up with a number of people, but there were some I didn't get much of a chance to talk to and others that didn't attend. I also would have liked to see more people from the years ahead and behind mine.

Then I headed up to Needham for a visit with the segments of the family there. I also continued with getting in shape with Andy's “get fit with 2 workouts a week or die trying” workouts which I had started with shortly after returning to the US. Amazingly I did get in much better running shape than I have been in since college, but I still don't particularly enjoy trying to run fast despite really enjoying being in shape. I also managed some pack rafting on rivers in the area and a short trip up to Maine to visit Emi (who I had also seen at the reunion). After my niece and nephew's birthday and a fair bit of stalling I finally achieved terminal velocity and headed out west.

The first thing I did when I got to the mountains was a rather epic ridge traverse of 4 peaks in Rocky Mountain National Park. Then I headed up to Lander for the International Climber's Festival. I was on a roll with the contests there and won the milk crate stacking and slackline competitions! Then I did a final acclimatization trip into the Wind River Range before heading around to the other side of the range for the annual TMF Expedition with the Yogaslackers (TMF = Too Much Fun, also known as a sufferfest). This 6 day trip trip involved hiking in 20 miles, a failed attempt to climb Arrowhead peak (rain and lightning got in the way), travel over some passes into the Titcomb basin, climbing Mount Helen, climbing Gannet Peak (the highest point in Wyoming), descending to the west with some technical backpacking to the Green River, and descending the Green River with ultralight pack rafts and hand paddles. Finally we busted out to the road and were saved from a long slog by some quick and fortuitous hitch hiking.

From the Wind River Range I headed to Squaw Valley, CA to the Wanderlust Music and Yoga festival. It was a weird mix of music festival, yoga festival, and burning man light – quite entertaining and I didn't get a whole lot of sleep. Then I headed back east to Salt Lake City to the Outdoor Retailer show (still with the Yogaslackers). As usual it was plenty entertaining but not so restful.

Then I had a few days of sport climbing at Maple Canyon before heading back up to Wyoming to join Dawn for a climbing trip into the Winds – the Deep Lake and Cirque of the Towers areas. After this tiring but successful trip we did a bit of sport climbing at Ten Sleep and then headed to Devils Tower where we climbed for a few days 'til she had to head back to Arizona. I stayed on at Devils Tower and did some work there at the Devils Tower Lodge (acting as host for the bed and breakfast). I also managed to get a number of good climbing days in.

I left Devils Tower to head down to Mexican Hat, Utah for a trip down the San Juan River with a heap of people Dawn knew. From there I headed back to Flagstaff for a few weeks with some local climbing including a trip to Granite Mountain. Then I headed to Kentucky in time for Halloween and some steep sandstone sport climbing in the Red River Gorge region. Unfortunately it seemed that as I was starting to get strong on the climbs there it was time to head up to Needham for Thanksgiving. There I have been enjoying the pleasures of indoor living, good food, fast internet service as well as enthusiastic 8 year olds. At this time last year I was excitedly driving across the country. What a difference a year makes.

Thanks to the many people who have shared adventures, trips, lodging, and food with me over the years, it is very much appreciated.

I have posted a number of trip reports online on my web page here:

http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/index.html

Happy Holidays (what's left of them anyway) and have a great new year.

Sunset over the Wind River Range, Wyoming

Solstice Lunar Eclipse

It started snowing here the 20th, so my expectations were low, but I looked out after midnight and the sky was clear, so I pulled out my camera, tripod, and warm coat and headed out to take some pics. First I had to sweep the steps clear, then I set up. Almost immediately a large cloud bank began sweeping in from the NE and the moon disappeared. I had also just locked myself out. oh well.




I peeked out a little over an hour later and it was somewhat clear, so I put on the telephoto and snapped a few pics of the moon disappearing. Meanwhile the clouds thickened up to the point where the moon completely disappeared. It would have been nice to see the whole spectacle but sleeping was nice too.

More Red River climbing

Here are a few more pics from yesterday at Funk Rock City... The weather was spectacular once again, and I even sent a few new climbs.

Derek on "Eye of the needle"

Zac on "Gyana Mudra"

I finally posted these and a bit more on my web page  here:

http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/kentucky2010.html

Funk Rock City (at the Red)

Lately the weather has been awesome here in Kentucky, and we have been heading out to Funk Rock City.

Here are a few pics from the last few days...

First Stacy on "Smokin' Joe"




Next up, Derek on Orange Juice

Praying Mantis

To continue with the little critters, here is a praying mantis someone found at Funk Rock City. It was pretty big - maybe 5 or 6 inches long (the leaf it is on is really big).

Another Spider

Well, it seems about all I am taking pics of these days are spiders... here is another one, complete with flash shadow from the lens. Maybe I should just take my macro lens out with me.

odd spider

While I was climbing the other day at Drive By some people saw a weird spider down below. I could see it from 2 or 3 bolts up, so I figured it was pretty big. When I got down I took some pics of it.

The abdomen was about the size of the last joint of one of my fingers.

Granite Mountain Teaser

Finally the weather forecast looked decent, so Oct 24th, Dawn and I headed down to Prescott to climb on Granite Mountain. The drive was longer than we liked, but uneventful. Then we hiked in and up to the mountain.


On the way we saw 3 tarantulas cruising along. They seemed pretty oblivious to us.


Once we left the main hiking trail we managed to get a bit lost in the rocks, brush, and cacti. Eventually we made it up to the base of the climb along with a surprising number of other climbers and dogs.

The climb we planned on was "Classic", but we ended up with variations on almost every pitch, starting out with Dawn leading "Crack Lover's Variation". For the second pitch I did a pitch of "Slammer Jammer". I'm not sure what we did for the 3rd pitch, it certainly wasn't what our descriptions of the route suggested, but some other climbers said it was the 3rd pitch of "Classic". This took us to the junction of the flying buttress with the main wall. I traversed out on the top of the buttress before finishing up on "Beaver Cleaver" to the top. We had a fat pill to celebrate before rapping down. We weren't sure if the first rap would go with a single 60M rope, so we did some fancy single rope rapping. I think it might have been ok with the 60 and rope stretch, but I am not sure. The next 2 raps were easy, then we had to hike back and make the long drive up to Flagstaff.

Dawn at the 3rd belay from the top of the flying buttress.

Dawn at the same spot viewed from above

Fat pill on the top

Link to my Granite Mountain web page about this trip (about the same but a bit more)

San Francisco Peaks bike/hike teaser

Today I biked up to Snowbowl at 9500 feet and then hiked up to the summit of Humphreys peak at 12633 ft / 3851 m. I left Flagstaff around 7:45 by 8:30 I was biking up the Snowbowl road. This did not go all that quickly. I think I was hiking a bit after 10. I made it to the summit before 1 I think, but I stayed there for a while. The descent went much more quickly, especially the bike part.

It was cool in the morning, but warm enough biking uphill. I was in shorts much of the way to the summit. There I wrapped up for a while. I also put more layers on for the Snowbowl road descent.

Aspens in the Inner Basin

The aspens were just barely starting to change along my route. It looked like more of the ones in the Inner Basin were changing. This was a bit easier than biking up the waterline road to the inner basin I think (and it looked like there was more snow along that route too), but I am still going to be a bit sore tomorrow.

view east down into the inner basin - one of the false summits on the left, Agassiz on the rt.

Here are some links to my earlier ascents of this peak...

2009, 2008, 2004

San Juan River Trip Teaser

I was able to go on a 6 day San Juan River trip from Sept 22 through the 27th, 2010 (thanks Dawn). We had a diverse and fun group of people that had some sort of Flagstaff connection. Many were photographers too, but all you will see here are a few of my pics. Between all of us, we probably captured most of what we saw though.

Dawn rowing the first day (with Kurt and Laura)

I met the group at the Goosenecks overlook where we camped for the night. The next day we went to the put in in Mexican Hat and started rigging the rafts. We had 3 oar rafts, 3 inflatable kayaks, a hard kayak, and my pack raft for 13 people. While we were rigging it started to rain. Hard. Soon there was a red mud-fall across the river and the river started to have red streaks and rise. It probably came up close to a foot before we were all loaded and ready to go. I don't remember the name of the first rapid, but it was a lot more than I was expecting. I completely filled my raft (no spray skirt didn't help) and thought I was going to flip at one point. In fact one of the inflatable kayaks and the hard kayak did flip. After that it was easier going and we even saw the sun for a bit around lunch time. That night it rained hard again which brought the river level up again and then it dropped and came up the next morning. we spotted another inflatable kayak floating down the river in the morning and rescued it (and used it for the rest of the trip). After that we got mostly sunshine and warm weather and the river gradually turned a tan gray although it remained extremely silty for the rest of the trip.

This stick was only sticking out a few inches the last time I saw it (before it washed away)

Honaker camp at night

On day 3 we had a layover at Honaker and hiked up the trail a ways. Most of the trip was at a fairly relaxed pace with plenty of delicious food (I probably gained 5 to 10 pounds - a real float and bloat). There was plenty of time to take photos, blow bubbles, and hang out.

Kat under the shade umbrella

Kurt blowing giant bubbles

Honaker camp

Dawn points out where it is (along the Honaker trail)

Raechel running Government rapid (with Nick)

We saw plenty of bighorn sheep including one male who was busy managing his harem. Also lizards, beaver, dogs, great blue herons, toads, primitive man, stick men, and a few birds. There were also plenty of tracks in the fresh mud.Primitive Man

Bighorn Sheep

Stick Man

The Milky Way from our last camp

All too soon it was our last day and we had to pack up and paddle down the increasingly sand-barred river to the take out.

A good time was had by all, and we would have happily continued had that been an option.

Check out my San Juan River Trip web page here

McCarthy West Face Variation

Lots of climbing the last few days. Here is a pic Jake took of me on McCarthy West Face Variation pitch 2. Then I toproped the original line which was super cool, but a little spicy to lead.


Check out my Devils Tower Web Page for more pics etc.

Durrance Route

Today we did the Durrance Route on Devil's Tower. It was one of the first routes and features a cool (but improbably) leaning pillar. We signed in around 7:15 and followed another couple up (they were far enough ahead to be out of the way though). We took the "jump across" variation, but climbed instead of jumping. Then we spent a bunch of time on the summit relaxing and taking photos (and I stepped on a bit of cactus in bare feet). It was lovely (except for the cactus that really wasn't that bad).

This is the first pitch, the leaning column - this couple was ahead of us.


This pigeon was scrutinizing my belay technique





Dawn on top of the leaning column



self portrait



people watching us



Dawn racks up for a pitch


The belay ledges were luxurious

The final scramble to the top

Feet on the summit

and our heads

cactus foot. ouch


summit handstand




Dawn scoping the descent on the south side (180 + degree panorama)