Some photos of Rome and stuff

Hey, why didn't anyone tell me Michael Jackson died?? Sad day.

Ummm....

Stuck in Ancona, Italy. Our plane to Frankfurt leaves tomorrow from Split, Croatia. Hope we can get out of this place before we miss our flight.

On another note, H and I visited the Pope's home along with some other amazing historical places the last few days. Once i get a few minutes to upload some photos, i'll do so. As of right now we are on the run. The last 36 hrs have been the classic hurry up and wait game as we are trying to make our way back across Italy and then across the Adriatic Sea to Split. Cross your fingers we will make it there by Tuesday before 2pm!

We are both healthy and for the most part happy. Other than a rough first part of the night when we got bad beta from the bus driver who dropped us off at the place were we needed to purchase ferry tickets, but neglected to tell us no ferry's leave from the port on Sundays... and he was the last bus of the day. So we had a nice 8km walk back to town only to find a hotel for 80 Euro's a night (that's very expensive).

Always and adventure.

Rome, Italy

We took the overnight boat to Ancona, Italy last night. That was really fun, but i dont think i could live on a boat for more than a few days! Next was the train from Ancona to Rome. This took us from east to west across Italy, through mountains, vineyards, and villages. Once in Rome, we wondered around downtown for a few hours, eating pizza and pasta (yes it is the best pizza in the world) and now we are hanging out in a nice hotel a few blocks north and east of the Colluseeum (sp??).

That is about it. Not much to report! Sorry no photos.

a star is born

Heather pretty much had one of the best ever climbing days! It has been really fun to watch her evlove on this trip; going from her typical reserved self to an all out funny, quick whitted, send or fall off trying kind of gal!

I was not feeling well yesterday and spent most of the time taking photo's and trying not to vomit. I did manage to climb two routes and back off of two routes, one of which was likely 5.9!

Nathan, Cheri, and Christine are headed to Germany. Heather and I are taking a few days to play tourist in Italy. We'll take the overnight ferry to Ancona and then the train to Rome. We should return to Split after the weekend for a few more days of climbing before heading north to Frankfurt, Germany.

Our trip has been increadable. Both Heather and I are super motivated to return home and start working on another limestone Sector i've had on the shelf; this one is located in the Lemhi Range of Idaho. A beautiful north facing long wall of blue/grey limestone! We've climbed enough sharp limestone to realize that you can either complain about it, or just climb it. I hope it stops raining in Idaho by the time we arrive later next week.

We can't wait for Ranch Dressing and Mountain Dew and chips and salsa and hamburgers from The Backyard and climbing with our friends and 4th of July with the family...

when it rains it pours

where we live and where we are

the town of Omis

Waiting for the rain to let up


it looks like the rain might be letting up. time to get amped up with the Croatian version of Red Bull


climb fast before you get too wet


heather lovin the rain belay

Yesterday, We spent the day in a cute little "mountian" town called Omis. The place had castles, markets, a river, and lots and lots of limestone - mostly undeveloped! We noticed two big sectors of steep swells and caves with tufas and pockets that had not been developed...at all. The routes we did climb were fun and the scenery was almost impossible to beat! Dispite the rain, we were able to climb many pitches and i finished off the day with a very enjoyable solo and down climb before riding the bus back to Split. Heather had a very strong climbing day yesterday and it was fun to see her find her groove.

More poor weather today, but likely we'll get some climbing in today and tomorrow before another storm hits later this week. Heather and I may take the ferry to Italy on Thursday or Friday when Nathan, Cheri, and Christine head north to Germany.

Only one week left...

Here's some good old American music!! I dig the Kazoo mounted to the top of his guitar!

hey... this isn't the western united states.

Okay, who wished rain on us? I know you guys are pretty much fighting trench foot now due to weeks of rain, but you don't have to get jealous of our weather here anymore...

We got rained out from one of the better sectors we've climbed at so far. Amazing tufa lines offering power endurance style entertainment. At least the temps were cool enough to feel like the .13a/b i sampled was attainable with just a few attempts. The upper tufa's were running with water, so hopefully we'll go back and i'll get another attempt at sending it.

The image below is of a local climber working on the same route before the rain started.

We climbed at the Marjan sector this morning and now we will let our skin heal and our muscles rest for the rest of the day. It's cloudy and overcast. I hope we don't miss the cooler temps, but i need a half day recovery. Hopefully we can return to Klis in a day or two and have dry tufas and pockets.

Happy Father's day dad and dad-in-law! We are missing everyone very much. See you in just under two weeks.

spiders, jumping snakes, heat, tender finger tips, and the Croatian sample platter

Big Spider

wanna-be spiderman

Keep on Rockin in the Free World 8a+

Heather sending a fun 6b

another shot of the 6b

We are back in Split for a few days. A lot of really amazing and scary things have happened the last few days. Our taxi ride to get us to the ferry on time (when leaving Hvar) was the thing movie chase scenes are inspired by! Although we were not being chased by anyone or anything, but our taxi driver was late in picking us up. A single lane dirt road above big cliffs and steep hill sides combined with maximum speeds made for a very exciting experience! The ferry left at 2pm. We arrived at 1:59!

We are staying at the same place in Split and the owners of the flat we are renting is driving us around to different climbing sectors! The people here are so nice and we have felt safe the entire time here. He even took us to his house last night to meet his family!

I'm on the Croatian climbing sample platter program. It has been difficult to send harder routes for various reasons, fitness, heat, humidity, and only climbing one or two days at each sector. So projecting a route has been unproductive to say the least. However, i am enjoying the sample style approach to our stay here. I may not come home with a single difficult redpoint, but i'm excited to simply try some of the routes and move on to the next. Bascially i'm chalking up the reasons to come back during a more realistic 8a time of the year.

That's all for now. Time to go climbing...

the village and the climbing

Here are a few images of the village we are staying in on the Island of Hvar.

The Pier

The Market and the Church

Looking down on the village from Miro's project cave

I finally got to climb a couple of steep routes today. It was overcast with some wind which kept the temps and humidity down just a little! This allowed for climbing on small crimps and long routes with less sweat soaked clothes and climbing shoes!

The local route developer, Miroslav, took us to his project routes in a cave high above the the village vineyard. We were accompanied by two of Milo's friends from Switzerland; one of which was very strong. I got to sample the easy route in the cave with might be as easy as 8b (5.13d). I did pretty well on it, reaching a distance out the roof before falling off and having to work one crux section before reaching the top and taking the "big" air from the anchors to minimize the rope drag from pulling over the lip and continuing up the headwall to the anchors! It was pretty exciting! The last image is of the project route he let us sample. It was fun to try and communicate with my Swiss project partner about sequences and beta. Basically i just grabbed something and if he cheered, i pulled!

Amazing limestone, eh??

from the edge of the deep green sea

WHAT A DAY!

Exausted. Sun up to sun down. Climbing. Falling. Splash down! SWIM. Repeat. A side of heaven not to be missed. Cliffbase - Hvar, Croatia.

Shrimp and Squid for dinner. Heavy eye lids. Sore finger tips. Salt water up my nose. I'm sure i'll wake up in this dream again tomorrow...

Moving On

We travled by ferry to the Island of Hvar; then by small fishing boat along the southern coast to an area called Cliffbase. Tomorrow we will rock climb and explore some deep water soloing on the cliffs in the above image. But for now, we must sleep...

some random photos

We ventured on to some harder routes yesterday and quickly found it to be very humid for pulling on small limestone crimps. I came very close to flashing a super techy 7c+ (.13a) but fell off on the two smallest crimps. No chalk on the tips and sweat pouring out of my body. Fun route though. Appearantly this route was the very first route equipped for any European climbing competition! Fun to get on it and do pretty well.

The Disco was off the hook last night. We grooved until 3:30 in the morning. Pretty sweet!

Nathan and Cheri arrive today and we will head to Hvar tomorrow where we will be able to focus on climbing a bit more than we are able to do here in Split.

Climbing, Euro Beaches, and Castles

Heather and Christine walk the "streets" of Split, Croatia

The Bird Man and his music box

The Beach and one of the climbing Sectors located above the beach
Heather climbing a very cool 5.11 next to an old building built into the cliff


Heather and I slowing down time!

We did pretty well our first full day in Croatia. The three of us ate good food, walked all over the place, hung out at the beach, and climbed some easy rocks! The jet lag is quickly fading and we are ready to spend more time at the beach and climb more rocks! The beaches are EURO beaches for sure! I had to find the best angle for the above image to keep it viewable for all ages! The water is warm and very clear. I'm excited for our stay on some of the islands and the snorkling we will get to do inbetween climbing sessions.

Today or tomorrow we will head to the island of Hvar and spend several days climbing there before moving on to other area's.

Heather, Christine, and i are staying in a small apartment in the heart of the Castle area of Split. A one minute walk and we are in the hustle and bustle of shops and markets. The entire area is an old castle and network of houses from the middle ages. Lots of history and culture. The people are very nice and happy to deal with our lack of Croatian understanding. Most everyone speaks English, or German, or Italian; so we are able to get by easily.

The temps are pretty warm durning the day and not great for rock climbing. The late afternoon and evening is perfect though! The limestone is a lot different than what we experienced in Greece, but is still really fun to climb. I am excited for more routes and other areas too.

That's all for now... ohhh other than i'm gonna get my groove on at the Euro Disco tonight....look out Split!!