Roundtrip Yo!

This post comes hot off the press from Folklore coffee in downtown Lander WY.  We signed a lease on a great little place near Liberty Park in SLC.  We move in June 1st and I speak for us both when I say it was a huge sigh of relief to find a place we really like so quickly.  One less thing to worry about!  The weather here in Landiego isn't amazing, winter is lingering and spring is having a tough time punching through.  We hung draws on our projects and they felt good, really good.  With any luck we'll have a few days of great weather coming up and we can finish off those dragons! 

We'll have to make at least one trip to SLC yet within the month before we move down to interview for our new jobs!  I'm courting a climbing hold company called ETCH.  They make great holds and it's the kind of job I'd be really psyched on, working with my hands making climbing gear, does it get any better?  Lindsay has two very hot irons in the fire, one at a teaching hospital and the other at a regional hospital north of the city.  One is more or less a for sure deal and the other is coming along nicely.  Needless to say we're dangerously close to checking off another box on the "moving" to do list. 

If you scroll down and check out the videos in the right hand column, the second one down from the top (should be labeled The Dude Ranch) is the video we shot this winter down in Hueco.  Sorry about the potty language but this sport evokes some serious emotions sometimes, plus we were trying hard!  So put it on your calendars, June 1 in Salt Lake.  We'll have a spare room for any passers by.  All are welcome.  

Dizziness in the City...

Driving around Salt Lake looking for houses has made Lin and myself perpetually nauseous.  We drive as slow as we can without impeding traffic too much, and whip our heads from left to right looking for the little red "For Rent" signs posted in yards and windows.  Two days of this nonsense has led us to sore necks and queasy tummies.  Yesterday we found a KILLER place in the area known as Liberty Park.  It's got a great back yard for the boys, two car garage and lots of off street parking, enough space for the two of us as well as a quaint little upstairs for guests.  We filled out the application in the rain and gave it right back to the guy!  If any of you know Dan the owner (he's a school teacher who's moving to Seattle with his wife and his Prius), tell him to rent to us because we're good looking and our dogs are faster than most senior drivers :).

Now being smart adults, we're still looking for a sweet little casa to call our own but with any luck, we'll be able to procure this place and that will be that.  To back up just a bit, we left St. George on Friday morning after a month of great times.  True, we struggled with the weather but hell, it's not like that's anything new on this trip.  In fact, if we had good weather at any point I'd be pretty damned shocked.  We had some good days though, especially towards the end of our time there.  BJ came down a few weeks ago and we raged at the Cathedral for the most part.  Each of us sending at least one route of notable "project" grade.  Lindsay shown through as usual sending most likely her hardest route to date.  Resurrection .13b is STIFF in the grade and through many cold days and numb fingers she persevered each day gaining a new high point until success.  Pure Poetry.  BJ while making very speedy progress on Joe Kinders new 5.14 Unforgivable made a quick, second go ascent of The Cross .13c.  Strong.  Myself, I tried to stay under the radar but managed to struggle through a mean little power endurance number called Treebeard .13c.  

We golfed quite a few days towards the end due to the 90 degree temps.  We all shot some of the best golf of our lives at the swanky little municipal courses in and around St. George.  We can't be sure but it may seriously affect our climbing game.  I highly recommend the southern Utah region to anyone wanting warm weather and beautiful scenery.  It's not hard to climb and golf well when you're in an amazing setting, like Hollywood trucked in a sweet backdrop for whatever you're doing!  I must mention, after nearly ten years of searching and near misses, I got to ride go carts on a rest day!  Ever since watching Three Weeks and a Day (climbing film) I wanted to spend a rest day zipping around a 30 foot long track in a gas powered beast named Flashy Fun #27.  It was bliss.  Our good friends Vance and Jen came down to visit some family and we were able to hang out for a day go-carting and laser tagging.  My hands are sweating just thinking about it.  

Next stop, Lander WY.  We'll see if these past seven months have made us any stronger for our long standing projects at home.  Enjoy the new pics.  Adios.

Can I Get Some Sunshine!

It's cloudy out right now, I'm bummed. We had a great day yesterday at the Wailing Wall with BJ. He drove down on Sunday night and will be with us for the next two weeks or so. Team Wyoming crushed at the crag, Lindsay fell at the very tippy top of her project, any closer and it's in the bag! BJ with some spray from Joey K figured out all the moves on the new 5.14 Unforgivable which came as a nice surprise (since his finger is still a little sore). With some nudging from Joe and BJ I jumped on Treebeard, 13+, and one hung it my second go so that was a nifty gift. We're headed back that way today because the weather is supposed to crap out on us again and only get up to the mid 50's with rain tomorrow...WTF! Isn't it mid April? Aren't we in the desert southwest? I thought it's supposed to be hot, dry and sunny down here!

Dewey has been tutoring me on photo techniques and it's been a lot of fun trying some newer more advanced tricks and tips. I took 140 pictures yesterday, not a damn one turned out! We sat down and he explained what I was doing wrong and hopefully today will yield some better results. As a personal highlight, I finally got to ride go-carts on a road trip. Ever since I saw Three Weeks & a Day, I desperately wanted to ride some go-carts Daryl Waltrip style. Our good friends Vance and Jen came down last week to visit some family and we got to spend a rest day with them at Fiesta Fun, THE establishment in Three Weeks the crew rides THEIR go-carts at. I spent all my money on those goofy things! I am such a geek.

Let's all just pray for some good weather and stronger muscles, all that any bi-pedal hominid would wish for~

The Same Old New Feelings

Sorry, no photos today. It's just been Lindsay and myself lately and as many of you know, it's more important to keep a hand on the rope vs. the camera. The past handful of days has been not too shabby. We got our new Mac and it's been a contest of brick chewing trying to move various files over from the Dell. We're making progress but for every transfer that goes the way it's supposed to, two more require that we run back to Laurie and Dewey's computer and do a quick Internet tutorial on "how to's". I can say that the ole Mac Book Pro is WAY more user friendly than our PC. I'm liking the multimedia "manipulation" programs that come standard.
Lin's finger is feeling better, she climbed on a .13b yesterday called Resurrection. Not only do I think that route is heinous (since the holds are small, tweaky, and barely there), it's certifiably HARD. The consensus around the campfire is that it's big in the grade (meaning it's difficult for the grade it's given). She went up once, had a strong burn (or try), came down and professed that she had used up all her juice and was gassed out. She then made two more attempts, each one stronger than the previous. The last go, she bobbled her feet, bobbled her hands, and still made a clip that has proven quite difficult in past tries. Encouraging.
I tried a .13b also called Indulgence. With our friend Kyle spraying me down (giving me suggestions on what to do) I flashed all the way to the top, four feet from the anchors. Flaming out, I faltered and had to hang. AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH! It definitely would have been one of my strongest efforts climbing ever! Recomposing myself, I tried to figure out the very cryptic ending sequence. I pitched off right at the chains, taking a funky little fall. Due to the nature of the rock and the bolt placement, I swung into the wall kinda hard and jammed my big toe, bad. We knew it wasn't broken but it was really sore for the rest of our time at the crag. I tried putting on my climbing shoe but it was a no-go. Way to painful to stand in the tiny little pockets at the top of the route. Poop.
The weather is crapping out on us again, cold and windy. It has to be a minimum of 70 degrees in town before we can conceivably climb at the Cathedral crag (the area we're most excited about) and it's been in the low sixties for the past two weeks. Hopefully it'll warm up this next week and we can get some good days in. We're scheduled to golf on Sunday with Laurie and Dewey, we're pretty excited about that. Our good friends Vance and Jenn are coming down from Lander this week also to visit her parents. We're making plans to get out and climb with them which will be WAY fun.
Nothing too new on the Salt Lake front unfortunately. We're still job hunting, the question still remains, "what do we want to do, and how often"? It's hard to think about going back to forty plus hours a week when we see all the people around us working part time and playing just as much as us. Sure, we're struggling with the age old question of balance. Luckily, we have really good looking dogs and camper named "Gwendoline, The Ivory Palace" so I think we'll probably be just fine!