what's the big deal anyway?

So, what's the big deal about mixed climbing anyway? Why do i get so excited about it? Is it because all of the cool kids are doing it? Or maybe because the chicks dig it...? Yeah, i think that's it! Six or seven years ago things were a lot different for me. I was in a different place in my life. I had different ideals, philosophy's, and motivations. I craved alpine mixed routes and disdained sport mixed climbing. Yet I'd spend days on end sport climbing in the summer. It seems so strange to me now as i look back on it.

The chosen ones say that pure ice climbing is easy. Last time i checked, it was still pretty hard for me... I'm serious. Then there was all of the hype in the Mag's which made mixed climbing even more marketable to the masses. Sport mixed routes developed overnight by the dozens. I never could understand why someone would want to climb a cave route with tools and spikes just to reach a little tiny drip of ice. It was so silly to me and I simply brushed it off with the notion that it's a lot more fun in the summer with rock shoes and shorts. The whole time i was all about scratching my way up challenging mixed terrain like the North Face/East Chimney of Mt. Wister in the Tetons. Don't let the 5.6 summer rock rating fool you! Or exploring the highly esteemed Grand Teton north side mixed routes. And after a few trips to the Canadian Rockies for more alpine knowledge, I really started to catch a glimpse of the mixed alpine potential in the central mountains of Idaho during various trips. Go figure, choss climbing is universal! Things were starting to make sense now with how special mixed climbing is in the mountains.

So what was the big deal about sport mixed climbing that i didn't get? The time came that i needed to evaluate some serious things in my life and try to understand why i continually felt held back. Some said it was a relationship. Others said it was religion. Both made sense, but i wanted to know for myself. So instead of dealing with important issues like relationships and religion, i started to look at my climbing ideals. As that winter in Jackson Hole progressed i looked hard at why i did things, and even harder at why i didn't do things. I can't really say if there was a Divine moment of insight or not, but i came to understand that i was holding myself back by identifying things as less worthy, like sport mixed climbing. It all came together after that. Relationships. Religion. All because of sport mixed climbing! Who would have thought that true happiness comes from the acceptance of mixed climbing...

Okay, seriously now. I'll get to the point. The reality is that one aspect of climbing is not superior than another - or more importantly, less worthy than another. To think so is personally limiting. Sport mixed climbing is fun. Sport climbing is fun. Alpine climbing is fun. Traditional climbing is fun. Bouldering is fun. Catch what I'm puttin' down?!?! Mixed climbing at a cragging level has become one of my favorite avenues for artistic movement and route development. I shudder to think what i could have missed out on by maintaining a belief that this style of climbing was less important to the "big picture" of what i wanted to do. It is a lot easier to focus on what i want to do now with this understanding and not be hindered by mental limitations.

So what is the big deal anyway? I think it's more about the freedom of personal recognition in that all things are equal in my eyes. Knowing i can challenge myself and have fun with any medium of climbing and not hold myself back with an ideal that what i am doing is more important than something else. I think if you've forgotten it's fun, you've forgotten climbing...

occupational hazards

It seems like i hit the ground running when our flight touched down last week. Nearly a month away from event coordination efforts for Mammut and I'm definitely making up for it now! The Bozeman Ice Festival is just around the corner and efforts for Ouray are always time consuming. Not to mention compiling a master list of events for 2008 budget purposes. The weather has been nice so i broke free for a few hours of cragging with the gang and headed to Blackfoot Canyon yesterday. It felt great to be back home climbing on slick basalt! Other than yesterday and one night in the gym, i haven't had time for much else. Well, i guess that's not completely true. We hung the right wing on the plane this morning and will turn the engine over for the first time tomorrow. Excited about that to say the least! She's not gonna fly for a while though, there is still a lot of restoration to be done, but at least it looks like an airplane from the outside.

Hopefully next week I'll have some time to climb outside. There is a good chance the Root Canal on the north face of the Grand is in condition. Rick and JT are heading up on Sunday so I'll have some first hand info on conditions when they get back. The weather is looking pretty nice next week and I'm still motivated for rock climbing. We'll see what happens. I'm not sure I'm ready for being cold yet. Kalymnos wrecked my willingness for suffering to have fun. I hope I'll get it back soon...

home sweet home

After many long hours on three different flights, we are back in Idaho. It's cold, windy, and absolutely beautiful. Our luggage is somewhere. Who knows. Maybe SLC. Maybe in the back of someones car on their way home from a long day handling baggage. Man, i hope they don't open my pack without a mask on. Last time i checked, ripe would not come even close to what was in there. I bet they got held back due to toxic fumes. Yeah, that's it.

I could not believe how much snow we have in the mountains. Ice climbing anyone...

jail break

Yeah, Athens is insane. I don't even know where to begin. Perhaps I should mention the fact that i nearly got arrested on the Metro on our way from the airport to our hotel. We purchased our tickets and got on the train. For some reason you have to validate your ticket after purchasing it. Seems strange since it's a ticket to ride on the train and not valid for anything else. At any rate, when the police came around and asked for our tickets we presented what we had purchased and he asked for a valid ticket. We told him that was what the ticket person gave us. He very rudely explained that we needed to put our tickets into some slot to stamp them before getting on the Metro. Ok, sounds good, thanks for the helpful tip, right..wrong. He then asked for our passports and began to write down our information saying that we needed to pay a fine for breaking the law. I tried to explain that it was our first time in Athens and the "validating" portion of the ticket was not clear at all and it was simply a mistake on our part. He then proceed to demand we pay E60 per person. What the... We did not have the cash which was a good thing and explained we didn't have 12o Euros (that's a lot) on the Metro with us. So he got even more rude and demanded i sign the ticket. Again, what the... I explained to him (Heather is in tears at this point) that i would not sign the document since i could not understand what it said and did not want to sign away my right to protest the ticket if possible. This did not go so well. He got pretty upset to say the least. I asked where i could go to talk with someone and he was so mad that his partner had to step in and explain what i needed to do. He was a bit more kind. Good cop, bad cop ploy i suppose. At any rate, we have one month to pay the fine or we can't leave the country. I asked the lady at the complaint office if this would not allow us to fly home on the 19th. She said no, but if you don't pay the ticket or have it over turned by the company who operates the Metro that we would not be allowed back into the Country. Crazy. Sounds like i have a few things to clear up when we get home! Needless to say Athens has been not so fun. I almost got my camera taken away for trying to take a photo of the beer tap at the McDonald's (don't ask what we were doing in a McDonald's!). I thought it would be a funny photo, but i guess not. It might be a jail break by the time we do leave in the morning.

We spent all day at visiting the sites of Athens. My favorite was the Museum. I have some pretty amazing photos of really old stuff! We are staying in the very heart of Athens. It's quite overwhelming. All of the noise, people, smells, and police with machine guns! I want a photo, but i don't dare. Might end up with a bullet in my back! We found a pretty sweet candy/ice cream shop just a few blocks away and have visited twice already. Our plane flies out of Athens tomorrow around 1:30. I hope we're on it and not headed somewhere else...

The beginning of the end...

Today was our last day of climbing on the Island of Kalymnos. The weather has taken a turn for the worse with colder temps and high winds. There is some concern that the plane might not be able to fly from the Island tomorrow. Like i said earlier, i don't think we're coming home! It's meant to be! If all goes well, we'll be in Athens for dinner tomorrow evening.

I've learned a lot about what motivates me, and what doesn't motivate me during this trip. I've got 18hrs of flight time to put my thoughts together on this. It seems i continue to learn about climbing despite the fact I've been doing it for more than half my life. Without evolution, it would become boring and meaningless. So much to write about but not enough time on this public computer.

Illiada

Thanks for all of the comments and posts you guys. It's been great to hear from you on the ole blog page. We look forward to reading every time. There is no computer services that will allow me to use my own laptop, so we've been at the mercy of public computers and 30 minute time limits this entire time. It's pretty hard to write meaningful posts with correct spelling and grammar after checking emails and weather forecasts. Thanks for putting with up my poor spelling and grammar. Our trip is quickly coming to an end. I think only 5 more days here before flying to Athens for a few days. Then home. It sounds like we completely missed Autumn and will come home to winter. Our Canadian friends have received news of over a meter of snow already in the Rockies. Pretty crazy. I did actually think about the mixed project in the Pahsimeroi yesterday. Maybe i could get the psych to get in there when i get home!

The other day coming down the hill from the Grotta, i slipped and fell; doing a hand plant right onto a cactus like bush. Needless to say i ended up with 50+ sharp burning pointy things stuck in my hand. It was so bad i could not climb yesterday. So we spent most of the morning picking out infected thorns from the palm of my hand. We were both pretty bummed about not climbing yesterday, but i did not want to aggravate my hand anymore than it already was. It was a good thing as both Heather and i were on top of our game today. Heather was climbing very strong on a few run out steep lines and i was able to flash a very impressive 7c+. I had wanted to do this route since it seemed similar to Karma Police at the Crank Cave back in Idaho. A bit shorter in length, and not quite as horizontal as Karma. I really wanted to compare this routes difficulty with my feelings that Karma might be 8a+ (5.13c). I was very surprised at how easy this 7c+ felt compared to Karma. Especially for me to get it first go. I do have a bit more confidence that Karma might actually be as difficult as my suggested grade for it. That would be pretty exciting!

It's been such a great experience for both Heather and I. We've made some amazing memories and new friends. Hopefully we'll see them again somewhere else in the future. Who knows, it is a small climbing world. This guy came up to me a week ago and said... "hey do you remember me? Odette introduced us at Maple Canyon a few years ago." Totally amazing. So i guess you never really know do you. We are looking forward to seeing family and friends in a few weeks, although i am not looking forward to sitting on a plane for another 18 hours!

Bye Bye Grotta...

It's been pretty hot the last few days. Temps well into the 80's with little to no sea breeze. So we've been climbing in the morning and swimming in the afternoon. The funniest/not so funniest thing happened to Heather while out in the water. She was attacked by some sort of flesh eating fish! I'm serious. Like a Parana or something. Do they have those in the Aegean Sea? She had a few scabs on her knees and while wading some sort of fish swam right up and bit her scab right off of her leg. She jumped out of the water and ran for dry ground. After this we witnessed another person get munched too. Crazy. At least the Goats greet you with a smile!

We've really come to know so many great people while here. Climbers. Locals. All have been wonderful and pleasant. The nice Polish climbers we met a few days ago wrote in chalk "You can do it" with a smiley face below the writing at the top of the route I've been working on at the Gotta. He and I shared beta and had hopes of climbing together the other evening. We did not make it back in time and so his note was likely a sign of success before they flew back to Poland the next morning. Needless to say It made all the difference making the final crux moves to the anchor this morning! The local people are wonderful too. We often eat at the same places and are greeted with hugs and kisses every time. Heather even got a little birthday surprise after dessert. It was a lot of fun. We are really going to miss this place when we leave late next week.

Climbing has been good. We do the obligatory 6a+ warm up/scare fest before finding the steep routes. It's so funny. This morning i was crying for help on this slabby 6a and fighting the entire way to the top. I swear it was as hard as the 7c i got on my third go today. I AM NOT A GOOD SLAB CLIMBER. As a matter of fact i really don't like it at all! Today was likely our last day at the Grotta since i finished up on the route i had been wanting to do. The last two times we witnessed to accidents. No fun. Both were practically the same thing. A few days ago another Polish couple had just finished a route on the very steep overhanging Grande Grotta and cleaned the route while lowering down. A feat in its own. After getting the last quickdraw he simply let go. Although high enough off the ground not to hit it, he forgot to unclip his tram biner and as a result pulled his belayer (wife) 40ft across the rocks. She got pretty cut up. Then today almost the same thing happened. While he was smart enough to unclip his tram biner, he was dangerously low to the ground. While swinging out (and everyone shouting NNOOOOOO...) he picked up his feet and barely missed the big boulders while going mach ten. Well, the sad part of this story is the weight and force of his swing pulled the belayer up and as if in total slow motion we all watched in horror as the climber swung back into the sharp boulders. Needless to say it ruined climbing for Heather and i the rest of the day. I offered to help carry gear down but there seemed to be enough people to help out. Scary. I think we'll go swimming this afternoon instead of climbing. Purana's anyone??

For real...

I ate an Octopus yesterday. A for real Octopus. Tentacles and all. Actually it was pretty good and not as rubbery as i have heard it to be. Perhaps because it was alive earlier that day, it was still tender...ewh. So much good food here it's hard to know where or what to eat. Our days consist of breakfast at home, lunch at the crag and dinner at one of the many restaurants on the main street of Massouri. We do miss Mexican food from Jalisco's and Cookie Monsters from Cragio's, but you're not going to see me complain!

Climbing has been amazing. We went back to the Grande Grotta today and did Priapos. I can't help but think this route is the best route i've ever climbed. Nearly 40 meters of roof climbing and a 30 meter lower off from the anchors. That's very steep if you do the math! There are some amazing no hands rests sitting atop of Tufa's and wrapping legs around stalactites. In between the rests are powerful boulder problems with a hard finish to that anchors. The anchor biner didn't work when i got there so it was a good thing i had one draw left. I didn't want to take the whipper over the lip of the cave. Trust me i, was scared! I almost got the flash ascent while hanging the draws, but i missed one key hold. The nice French man who chain smokes said it looked good and had a good laugh when i "screamed like an American" as i fell off. I guess that means like a girl?? Click on the image to the left to find Waldo. This is only a third of the way through the roof/route. Absolutely amazing.

I think we'll climb some moderate routes tomorrow and take a rest day on Wednesday before going back to the Grotta. Today is Heather's birthday and she is wanting Baklava later this evening. Ok, sounds good to me. A day in the Grotta makes us tired.

We Climbed at a beautiful Sector called Zeus yesterday. Had the place to ourselves which is a huge change from many of the other Sectors. It seems all of Germany, Austria and England are all on Holiday right now. It's a good thing i took German in High School! We've Made fiends with a few of the Austrians who are projecting the 8b+ (The Dragon Devil) at Iannis sector. I will meet with them tomorrow and work on this as well. They are pretty close, and i have a bit of catching up to do. It's been really hard to project routes here as there are so many 7a to 7c+ (.12a - .13a)routes that are amazing. I had hopes of working on something a bit harder but just can't seem to find the motivation to work on a route more than a handful of times. We'll see what happens tomorrow and if i catch the projecting vision.

If my dad were a Greek fisherman, this would be him! I was sitting on our balcony yesterday morning eating breakfast when he drove by with his faithful hound. Luckily i had the camera right there with me. You never know what you're going to see! The power transformer on the large power pole outside of our apartment keeps blowing up at random times during the night. It's a pretty amazing fireworks show and sounds like bombs exploding! I wish there was a way to catch it on film.

The other day at the Market i realized the Greek people really know how to have a campfire weenie roast! Nat, if i can smuggle these bad boys through customs, we can have ourselves a serious feast at your place when we get home! They give a whole new meaning to "foot long"! These things are massive and made of real meat! Holly Crap...

It's offical...

It's official. Heather and i are not returning to the States. We have decided to sell all our belongings to reside on the Island of Kalymnos! Anyone interested in ice climbing gear? I can't even bring myself to think of such a cold and cruel thing like ice climbing. There is no beach. There is no sun. I guess there are hanging things to climb up though, maybe I'll rethink this!

We are in a pretty good routine now. Beach. Climbing. Beach. Food. Climbing. Beach, etc. There are some American things i am having a hard time without. There is a good supply of Coca Cola on the Island but no Mtn. Dew. Plus there is the absence of rock music. We heard Sweet Child of Mine blasting from one of the local Cafes on Main St. the other night. It was a piece of heaven! A musical masterpiece.

Heather and i are really starting to get the hang of this steep 3-D climbing. I don't know how i ever lived before. We have been spending a fare amount of time at the Grande Grotta. It's not quite Crank Cave, but it will do! Nothing major to report. Just having a blast...

three reasons to visit Kalymnos

Okay, so i haven't been completely honest with you guys. I didn't want you to feel bad so I've been posting a few boring climbing images, hoping that you'll say, oh, it's the same ole boring limestone slab that we in Idaho/Wyoming. After climbing the best routes of my life the other day, i can no longer keep the secret. Here are a few pic's of the terrain at the Grande Grotta.

The amount of traffic at the different sectors has been overwhelming. We tried getting up early to beat the crowds, but found out the Austrians have this dialed. Usually by 1pm, many of the routes are in the sun and it becomes too hot to climb effectively and the crags start clearing out. Most head back to their studios and get cleaned up, put on their good clothes and treat themselves to a nice dinner at one of the many fine restaurants on the main street in Massuri. We too have been following in suit, but on a whim we tried to climb in the afternoon instead of the morning. We were surprised to find very climbable temps after 3pm and can climb until the sun goes down. No lines, no language barriers with other climbers, just amazing climbing and our own weaknesses. The evening alpenglow creates a life on Mars effect as seen with two of the photos.



The weather is cooling down a bit so it has been very pleasant the last few days of climbing. Probably the reason why we can climb in the afternoon. I bet others will start to catch on to this idea as well. Today i spent part of the day fixing Moped's at one of the rental places. We are staying at Mike's Studio and they also rent Moped's. Maria needed some help and put me to work for free Moped rentals!! A good deal if i say so myself.

Back to my Grotta project tomorrow...

Tufa King Pumped

As with any climbing destination I've been to the route grades are not very consistent. We climbed many 6a's yesterday for our warm up and not a single one felt comparable. Regardless, it was inviting to not really know what you were going to get! Heather has been working on a route called Sevasti at the Iannis Sector. This route is rated 7b in the book and 7b+ in the updated paper copy. I missed the onight, but easily walked up it on my second go. The Tufa King Pumped is also at the same sector and was given an 7b original grade and a 7b+ in the book. These two routes are worlds apart in difficulty. It will take me a few more attempts to redpoint TKP. The route is beautiful with powerful underclings and a crimpy crux after you're mega pumped!

Heather is collecting rocks from the beach to bring home for her 4th graders. I have yet to find something fun to bring back to our families. The search goes on, but might have to wait until the last leg of our trip in Athens where there are more shops, unless every one wants a snorkel and swim fins from the Island of Kalymnos!

Not much to write today. We climbed late into the evening yesterday and slept in this morning. Heather wanted to try the English Breakfast at one of the restaurants (bad idea!) and now she's back at the studio recovering from the experience. I think it will be best to stick with the local dishes and not eat what is surely a recipe of English leftovers, ie. beans and franks, eggs, toast, bacon, mushrooms, and a tomato! Sounds yummy...

Looking out at the Tufa's and stalactites from inside the Grande Grotta. There is a climber center left for size perspective! Yes there are routes on the right side!

Near the top of Tufa King Pumped.

Heather going for the redpoint on Sevasti (7b)