multi-pitch belayer zen

(today, i managed to convince a poor soul to accompany me to boulder canyon. i got to belay on two multi-pitch climbs.)

i've only been on a handful of multi-pitch climbs. because i'm still not well-versed in the art of anchor building and can't place a trad climbing piece to hold an ant falling 2 feet, i've only belayed leaders. hopefully, soon, i'll take a climbing course or two to rectify the slack injustice that is my always-belayer hat on trad and multi-pitch routes.

until that happens, im going to savor the experience that is belaying high off the ground.

i'm now convinced. belaying on the ground is completely overrated. the stillness, the breeze, the solitude of belaying high on a shelf is the way to go. word.

shelf road

it's been a good year or so since my last visit to shelf road. great/chill/fun problems there. here are some images from my weekend trip:

http://www.newclimber.com/gallery/shelfweb/index.html

brandon and andrew are photographed.

7am routine

my work schedule gets crazy. ten to twelve hour days are a bit too common.

i often wondered if i'd ever be able to get into any kind of climbing routine. while not easy, i'm trying to make it to the gym on tuesday and thursday mornings from 7-9am.

two days so far this week.

i'm sooo sleepy today though.

ahhh the choices we make for our cheap vertical thrills.

bouldr.net - a community-driven resource with potential

climbing resource sites that rely on public contributions are a great idea. power to the climbers. the challenge of course is getting enough people to regularly add interesting and relevant information. one such website that i came across recently is bouldr.net. the site allows users to contribute photos, beta, and other information about climbing problems from around the world. while the site needs a lot more information to be super helpful it still has potential.

the site's visual map, powered by google, is a pretty neat tool. as of today, there are around 30 problems identified in north america and around 300 in europe.

nerve.com / sex advice from rock climbers

a few weeks ago i randomly received an email from one of the editors at nerve.com. they asked me if i was interested in contributing to one of their regular columns - "sex advice from ..."

i said sure. here's a link to my answers:

http://www.nerve.com/regulars/sexadvicefrom/rockclimbers/

a bit embarassing, but way way fun.