Red Rocks Rendezvous 2017 plus more in Red Rocks

This year we had more YogaSlackers than ever at the RRR. Dani and Michelle taught Yoga, Sam and Raquel taught acro, and Tom and Tom taught slackline. Kimberly was also there as well as Jen and David and Tina and heaps of other cool peeps. Paul and Kathryn came after the RRR to climb.

I got their early, but that just meant a really windy Wednesday night. Unfortunately I had already set up a tent to claim an area for the YogaSlacker tent compound. I discovered that if I set up tents then sometime during the night a woman would occupy them. Thursday Tom came and we set up the slack park and played on it a bit.

sunrises are often nice here

Friday we went climbing up first creek canyon. We did some crack climbing and toproped a face at the Romper Room. It was a bit of a walk to get there and back, but nobody got lost, we didn't need our headlamps, and only a few people got stuck by cacti.

I must commend Raquel's choice of bright colors - here on "romper room"

The Rendezvous passed in a blur of classes, playing and training on the lines and each other, talking to friends new and old, cooking and eating in "YogaSlacker East" (the parking lot), and sleeping in the YogaSlacker tent compound. Sadly I was not able to win any of the contests.

Warrior One on plank on plank (that is Michelle and Tina supporting me)

Sam achieves ToeSox enlightenment (this was fun to stage)

YogaSlacker tent compound at night

YogaSlacker East - the parking lot

 After the Rendezvous a number of us went climbing. Sadly there seemed to be crowds everywhere we looked. We ended up finding a few things at Moderate Mecca though.

the peanut gallery watching Raquel climb

Then a heap more people took off and I climbed a few days with Kathryn and Paul (who showed up the last night of the RRR). First we went to the Dog Wall and I got thoroughly beat down trying to sport climb. I did however get the rope up - perhaps that was the theme of the week.

Kathryn at the Dog Wall

Paul belays me on "no dogs allowed" (K took the pic)

 The day with the best weather forecast we went on a multipitch adventure climbing "mister z" and then "armatron". The not so great belays on armatron got a little old as a party of 3 but we all had a good time and managed to get down the slabs before we needed our headlamps.

Another nice morning here - this was on our way to a multi-pitch adventure

We got in a half day of cragging at the hidden falls area before the wind and exhaustion finished us off. The wind got pretty strong (staggering us as we walked). P and K were planning on heading back the next day and the forecast called for strong winds through their departure time so we packed up and bailed. I threw myself on the mercy of Val who recently moved to Vegas for a travel job. A shower and shelter from the wind was most appreciated. I spent a day mostly staring into screens and then on Saturday we went climbing. We went past Moderate Mecca and it was totally empty but the crag we planned to go to was packed. Sigh. We ended up doing some moderates (Val got to lead) at the Hamlet and then on to Newcastle wall to get tired out. Back in Vegas we had to bake some cookies and soak in the jacuzzi.

Val - Queen of the desert

When I got home there was new artwork on my white board. This one by Amara. I also have been finding bits of popped balloon about. It is nice to be able to return some of the generosity I have enjoyed during my many years on the road.

I intend to write a more complete trip report with more pics some day, but this is a start.

Fall Highball Classic

This weekend (November 7-9) was the Fall Highball Classic here sponsored by the American Alpine Club, Access Fund, etc. It involved a showing of Valley Uprising Friday night, Clinics and Climbing Saturday, A party and big alpine granite slideshow by Dave Nettle, cleanup and other work at the Buttermilks Sunday, and of course more bouldering and climbing. It was nice to catch up with a few people there, and someone even recognized the name on my jacket tag and asked if I was the one with the blog (someone not related to me has actually read at least some of this!). There were some 60 or more people getting a variety of projects done at the Buttermilks including dispersing (mostly into holes in the road) a large pile of soil produced when the toilet was installed. Hopefully that will help keep things a little nicer in the area. Then I did some bouldering mostly on the green wall - it was a little warm and felt harder than last time I tried it. Oh well.

warming up at the party Saturday night

some of the people gathered to work on the Buttermilks

soil pile before

soil pile after (and new toilet)

our fearless leader Andrew tells us what is up

bouldering on the Green Wall

Bouldering season is well and truly here - it is like someone turned the climber switch on. I have mostly just been bouldering with a few bike rides thrown in - and trying to insulate my ceiling. It sure is nice to have cool nights and sunny days even if they are starting to get short. I also got enough gear to set up a longish line (up to 110 feet long so far) so I have been working on that from time to time. It still doesn't feel comfortable, but I am getting better - and better at holding my arms up for a long time.

longline in the park

gratuitous Owens Valley sunset

In other news if you haven't seen it Sam, Raquel, and Ben have been hard at work trying to get kickstarter funding for making a movie with all the footage they took during the 50 state Peace Love Car end of the road tour this year. Sam and Raquel didn't actually drive to all 50 states, but they visited them all and drove to all but Hawaii and also all the Canadian entities that you can actually drive to. This is a worthy project so if you are interested in this sort of thing check it out - there aren't many days left and they are in the final push.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1971174019/road-to-wanderlust-film

Church of Grundy July 4th weekend revival and backpacking teaser

Over the July 4th weekend I hosted a Church of Grundy Revival. Basically a bunch of YogaSlacker people visited and we set up slacklines and did acro at the park and climbed and hung out. It was a lot of fun and will probably happen again. Some people stayed on through Tuesday morning for more fun and play and then Tuesday evening I went backpacking with Willow and Jana. Peaks were climbed at midnight, passes were passed, beautiful blue lakes were jumped into, moonrises watched, wildflowers smelled... I will have to write proper trip reports for both of these events, but for now here are some teaser pics.

The trip report can now be seen here:  http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/2014cogjulrev.html

high hand to hand with Leah 

There was a lot of water line failure 

Ariel bases Rob like a boss

Ariel and Rob cook while Kathryn, Paul, and Leah chat and eat at the COG

Kathryn climbing at Iris Slab (the old tilt the camera trick)

Kathryn flying Paul

walking the line

YogaSlacker TT 2013 mini - reunion. Kathryn, Tom, Willow, and Leah

Willow boulders

For our hike we went in over Piute Pass, Snowtongue Col, down to Evolution Valley, up Goddard Canyon, past Davis Lake, through Evolution Basin, Darwin Bench, Lamarck Col and out. I have many pics to process, but here are a few to start. 

A more complete trip report for the hike can be seen here:  http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/wjthike2014.html

There was a search underway for a missing hiker who went in to climb Goddard. We saw a few searchers and lots of helicopters. Evidently he summited Goddard and fell on the descent and crawled down to Davis Lake w/ a broken leg. In the evening a helicopter landed almost next to him to drop off searchers and he managed to signal them by throwing rocks and waving something. The next day we saw a helicopter landing by Davis Lake as we went by on the other side.

Willow flying high bird in the back country

there were lots of wildflowers

cold blue lakes were jumped into (Davis Lake)

Kathryn visits for a fun and busy weekend

Last weekend Kathryn took a break from the rigors of life in San Diego to visit. When she got here Friday I assured her that there really were mountains around, as they were shrouded in clouds. The next morning the Whites and Sierra Nevada were covered with fresh white snow. We had a busy schedule... Biking, Hiking up Tungsten Peak, Summit acro, slacklining, acro, bouldering, eating tasty vegan food, watching movies, rock climbing in the gorge, and lots of talking. Thanks for coming up Kathryn.

Biking

summit acro (Tungsten peak summit)

taking selfies

hiking

slackline

acro

bouldering

flexing/posing (making me look weak)

climbing at the Owens River Gorge

hiking out of the gorge

I put a bit more text and pics here:

http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/kathryn4-2014.html

Las Vegas and the RRR

It has been a while since I updated things. In January I went down to Joshua Tree for a long weekend. Then I went to the winter OR show and then on to Cleveland for 2 months before returning to Bishop with a load of stuff.

bodaciously bouldering back in Bishop

Last weekend I went to the Red Rock Rendezvous near Las Vegas to teach slacklining and then stayed for a day of climbing and a day of highlining. As usual there was some weather, but in general it was pretty nice. The classes were a bit more random this year because the sign ups were not working properly, but lots of people got a lot of time on the lines. After setting them up the day before things started Tom and I even got out for a little bit of climbing.

Prana had fresh fruit for everyone

Sam getting aerial drone video of Raquel on the line

Sunrise on the Red Rocks

After the festival I climbed Cat in the Hat with Anthony, it was nice to get out for some mellow multi-pitch. Then we got on something else but only got 1.5 pitches up before we had to bail to make it out of the loop on time. The next day we set up the highline at the second pullout and got on it with varying levels of success. I mostly bruised my ego and my inner thigh. I did manage to walk 1/3 and then 1/2 way across though. By the time we took it down it was downright cold and windy. In fact when I returned to Bishop there was some snow coming down. Luckily it was too warm to stick down in the valley, but it sure looks nice on the mountains.

taking my Evolv Bandits for a vertical hike

Anthony on the highline

Anthony gets one more evening walk across the line

I managed to not get any pictures of myself the whole 6 days except for one lame selfie on the climb.

I posted a few more pics and text here:

http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/rrr2014.html

A busy Saturday, trail work, highline, and bouldering.

It is getting to be that time of year here in Bishop - Bouldering Season. You can see chalky fingered puffy wearing fit people in the grocery store, plenty of vans parked overnight in the lot, and of course hordes of pad people out at the boulders.

people starting to gather for the trail work

I joined quite a crowd (50 ish) folks for some work at the Buttermilks last Saturday. Among other things we moved a lot of rocks that had been graded off the road to the edges of trails between the boulders. Some less needed and redundant trails were closed off, some native plants and seeds were planted, some trash was picked up, and some signs were replaced. Quite a lot got done, and I even got a little blister, but I guess I was busy working since I didn't get any pics. Then I was able to borrow a harness for a quick go on the Peabody Boulder highline that someone from Gibbon had set up. I did better this time, but it still didn't feel like it would have close to the ground.

highlining - thanks to someone for taking the pic for me

playing in the middle of the line on the way back (after falling)

walking past the moon

this woman was super solid - and going old school with the swami belt

Then I had to go back down and return the harness, so I took some pics before a little bouldering. Since I had bouldered the day before and I am still trying to get back into the swing of things this was a pretty weak session complete with sore skin and muscles and a little whining. There were heaps of people out enjoying the lovely weather and the 3 day weekend.

lots of people out at the boulders

nice sunset from a few days ago

same sunset - looking the other way towards the White Mtns