Planet Kauffman

The Sun Before the Storm

2012-02-06T15:13:00.000-08:00

Jesse and Cedar climb 'The Wisdom'

...an infamous Eldo route with some heads up terrain

Tim keepin it together on Rosy Crucifixion's famous traverse

Katie reaches on Rosy's second pitch

Tim and Katie high on 'Alice in Bucketland'

Tim pulling a really fun roof

Prayers for snow have been rewarded with nearly two feet of fresh blanketing the Front Range last weekend. Outdoor climbing is on hold for now, but I got out last week with Tim and Katie for an amazing day in Eldo. We climbed Rosy Crucifixion, the highlight being the pumpy traverse over the sucking void. I'd checked this route out years ago with my brother and been too wigged to send. Well-deserved classic status!

The Eldo link-up is probably one of the best things out there. Intricate passages wind up the meta-sandstone towers, a choose your own adventure of remarkable terrain. After finishing Rosy, we went up to the most fun I've had lately by climbing Alice in Bucketland. It's 5.8+, runout,, ridiculously juggy, and throws these airy roofs at ya!

Nothing better than great climbing with your friends, in the sun, in February!

Progress on the shoulder has been great recently. Making a strong comeback and getting amped for the Spring season!

South Fork Ice

2012-02-02T15:44:00.000-08:00

TR the GNAR-let Jared lead it! Jared's photo

Maury leading High on Boulder

The right rope is attached to...

Tim on Moonrise


Feeling the calf pump here. Jared's photo

Jared finishing Moonrise

Maury contemplates The Pillar of Pain

Maury leads Festering Ice

Kinda steep


Ice Fest and Festering Ice

SPLAT!

2012-01-17T12:48:00.000-08:00

Roy Leggett climbs Astro-Turkey

Ben showing off battle wounds

the stellar face pitch on the standard route of the sunshine wall!

Ben nears the cumbre

On top of the Sunshine Wall

JUBA the dog

The 'Rado

2012-01-12T13:57:00.001-08:00

Boulder Canyon and "the center of the universe"

Max hi-ballin' at Flagstaff

Maury high on Rewritten in Eldorado Canyon

Josh tastes the Slimy Spoon

Just fun on Layton Kor's Grand Giraffe route

One of Eldo's true offwidths, Grand Giraffe's crux

The Naked Edge, Eldo's premier route

Crispy and clear on Eldo's West Ridge
Ben

Its windy here in winter...
makes for some great clouds

I never realized how windy Boulder can be; the Chinooks come in hard and rip over the extensive foothills onto the desolate plains where nothing stands in their way. How east far is the nearest real tree anyway? Some even consider Boulder to be the Midwest, but I've never bought it.

Shoulder PT is going well and I've been climbing on it for about a month now after the infamous downward/sideways dyno on Tradewinds. The diagnosis from the doc was a SLAP tear of the labrum, and a partial tear of the supraspinatus tendon. Ultimately, I was out the game for 10 weeks, which has been pretty devastating considering I'm basically an unprofessional climber. People offer positive encouragement, citing all your free time to do new stuff, and appreciating something lost. Well its BS, climbing is what I love, and not having it is a serious hit to my psyche. On the up side, I don't need surgery, and I'll to be back to full strength this spring. I've been doing tons of core training, and that has been a huge boost to the overall climbing strength. If you want to be a better at anything, do intense ab workouts.

After you've read this, put down your smart phone, and considering actually interacting with someone, even if they're a "stranger". One of the best things about leaving the US for the last three winters has been not being here. Technology is seriously affecting abilities to communicate with others in real time, and living in a populated area has made me realize just how disconnecting being fully connected is. Turn off the internet and have a real conversation with another human. It will do us all some good.

Fight the Rise of the Machines!

Balance and Alpine Climbing

2012-01-06T11:38:00.000-08:00

Two months into a four month stint on the Austral Plane and it's been more than half a year since my annual shearing. When the wind blows shaggy hair into my eyes, I can relate to this El Chalten dog. A lot of dogs in this small town have no manners. This little one is a perfect exception. RESPECT.

Exocet (attempt), Cerro Standhardt.

First light caught Jens and I just below the Jammed Block on Cerro Standhardt.

Jens and I simul-climb the last bit to the Standhardt col.

From our perch the view into the Cirque of the Altars is tantalizing.

Jens looks ahead to the mixed pitches.

Jens leading the first mixed pitch.

Jens passing the Jammed Block.

Pretty dry...

This was our view of the Fitz Roy Massif with the shadows of the Torre Group.

The Fitz Roy group bathed in twilight as seen from high on Standhardt.

After dumping water out of my boots at the base of the Exocet ice chimney, they were wet for the rest of the night. My feet began to ache as we hiked the rubble strewn Torre glacier on the final approach to camp. This is what they looked like when I finally pulled off the boots. No permanent damage. However, I would recommend not climbing waterfalls without waterproof pants...

We were lucky that the sun was out when we woke from a short nap.

Jens holding a staring contest with the Torre. Torres-1, Monkeys-0.

The last month has been CRAZY down here at the Southern tip of Argentina. I recently returned from eight days in the mountains and am reflecting on one of the warmest and driest periods in recent El Chalten history. May the following tales help everyone understand the ups and downs, the Ying and the Yang, and challenge of finding balance while alpine climbing in one of the Great Ranges of the Earth.

My Christmas present was a thorough soaking (think cold shower while standing in a tub of ice cubes). Jens and I reached the Jammed Block on Cerro Standhardt shortly after the sun hit us. On the East side of the col the temps were well above freezing with no wind. On the West side, that faces the second largest non-polar ice cap in the world, temps were well below zero with a heat stealing wind.

Jens and I down-climbed back onto the warm side and kicked a ledge in order to melt water, rewarm, and come up with a plan. We had brought rock gear to attempt Festerville and ice gear to climb Exocet. This was the decision point. The idea of climbing rock with bare hands in the bitting wind was altogether unappealing. We decided to wait and see if the wind would abate as it was predicted to do.

We made a couple liters of water and ate some food while we waited. Eventually we decided to head up to Exocet and hoped to use a strategy that would put us at the base while the ice was refreezing. Many traversing pitches with snow and ice barely sticking to slabs and refrozen crust on top of otherwise iso-thermic snow brought us to the base of the chimney. I peered up into the gash and told Jens that I had waited forfive years for this moment. The water flowing under the ice below the climb did little to deter me from launching into the shoulder width lower section. One ice screw placement later I was yelling down to Jens that it was even better than I had imagined.

Exocet is either a Water Ice dream or a WI 5++ nightmare depending on conditions. At the 30 meter mark, I was realizing that it may be in the later condition. Freezing water ran inside my waterproof jacket and down my arms. The ice was steep and flowing. The flow increased the higher I climbed. Cam and nut placements became almost non-exhistant as verglas covered every inch of rock on either side of the ice. When the ice bulged to vertical and slightly steeper I was forced to bring my hips under the icy flow. My knees soaked out first. I soon realized that water was flowing down into my boots. I could feel the ice cold water pooling around my feet. At 50 meters I looked up and was able to locate a rock anchor 15 meters ahead. I placed the last ice screw and launched into steep flowing ice and technical stemming.

Controlling my breath, I was able to channel the rising fear and finish the run-out. There was a small rock rib in the ice I stood on and contemplated the situation. The rock anchor was ten horizontal feet from the ice. I had no more ice screws and the broken black rock of the dike that formed the chimney was chocked with ice. In these conditions, pitons are an alpine climber's best friend. I drove in two lost arrow pitons and scraped the ice from a couple more cracks in search of a nut or cam placement. A red C3 fit in and although I questioned the integrity of the fractured black rock, it was frozen and the cam appeared solid. A final nut placement rounded out the anchor I intended to tension off of in order to reach the rappel anchor.

Jens took one rope tight and I opposed the tension by pushing off the opposite wall and clipped the second rope into the rappel anchor. At this point I was using a lot of energy trying to think clearly. Hypothermia was tightening it's grip. It was going to be a real challenge for me to back up the rap anchor, clean the anchor I built, and rappel while cleaning the pitch. Fortunately the climbing had been engaging enough and building the system was taking enough energy that I was able to keep dexterity in my fingers. I clipped a shoulder length runner to the high piton in the rap anchor and clipped it to the rope. Next, I tethered myself into the rap anchor. Once tethered I untied from both ropes and retied the ropes together and put myself on rappel with a backup. Finally, I cleaned the pitons and the cam. I left one nut and a sling with a carabiner because it provided a backup to the rap anchor.

While I rappelled and cleaned the 65 meter pitch, Jens lit the Jetboil and prepared from my arrival. The temps had dropped below freezing and there was ice on the gear and the ropes. I believe to have launched into the chimney an hour too early. When I reached the belay I was beginning to shiver. I pulled off all the soaked clothing, except the pants, and put on a my only dry jacket. Jens gave me his down jacket and I sat down to dump the water out of my boots. A liter of hot water later, I was feeling pretty good about the situation. It would only be a matter of suffering. I knew that continuous movement would be the only way. We prepared for the descent and I belayed Jens back across the ramp systems that had brought us the the base of Exocet. Once again we are reminded that timing is everything!

Exocet is the name of a French bomb dropped on the Argentines during the albeit short war over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas).

Later in the week we celebrated the New Year. My motivation for more suffering was low. I caught a cold and decided to sit out a short "window" that never actually materialized. My body was telling me that it needed rest and I listened. Listening to these sometimes subtle clues has become my focus over the last month.

Jens returned to Washington a couple weeks ago. Since he left it has been crazy down here. The hottest, driest period in recent El Chalten history allowed a slew of ground-breaking ascents as well rescues and tragedy. I didn't take any photos on the last tour. My intentions were to climb Bjorn and Chad. However, the day after depositing our cache at the Stanhard col, we were called upon to rescue a friend.

Everyone who climbs in the mountains knows that the moment will come when we have to help one of our own. We prepare for this by training our bodies to the extent of their genetic capability. We train our minds by taking wilderness medicine courses and keeping up on certifications as well as having a working knowledge of rescue systems. We also carry a medical kit with SOAP notes and the correct equipment in case the weather changes unexpectedly. If you are climbing with someone who hasn't checked all of the above, then don't go into the mountains with them until they do!

Nothing prepares us for losing a friend in the mountains. My condolences to all those who have.

The unprecedented good weather of December and January has come to an end. The weather was so warm that the glue (ice) which holds these mountains together melted and we witnessed mass wasting events throughout the range. The snow level has since dropped to the hills above town and ephemeral ice lines can be seen on Cerro Solo. This new weather pattern has allowed us to all regain balance.

In Argentina, the 29th of every month is the day of gnochi. Eating gnochi on this day is considered good luck. It is said that putting cash under the plate while eating will beget more money in the upcoming month.

Making gnochi is pretty simple. 1) Boil potatoes 2) Mash potatoes 3) Add flour 4) Roll into tubes and separate into balls. 5) Boil them until they float 6) Add sauce and eat!

Huge thanks to Rolo for capturing these rare moments on my camera!

Capa (the man who built this place out of recycled materials) enjoying the company of Troutman, Josh, and Maranda.

Making gnochi for 30 people is a production!

How much gnochi? Four hours worth...

A table of SENDBOTS!

The gnochi has provided us all with good luck. We have been lucky enough to get some world-class bouldering in. Sunny bouldering with friends... quite the opposite of suffering in the mountains...

Troutman sendeth!

Nice work Kate!!! The local bouldering competition was as fun to watch as it was to compete in. Kate took third in the women's division. The day started out rainy and everyone had their doubts. However, in typical El Chalten style, the sun came out and the temperature was perfect for bouldering.

We await the next window and meanwhile all enjoy the Dulce Vida!!!!

2011-12-23T12:48:00.000-08:00

Rise of the Machines

VI 5.11 A2+

900m (650 new)

Southwest Face, Aguja Poincenot, Argentine Patagonia

Mikey Shaefor photo!!!

Moonset over Sitting Man Ridge.

Mikey Schaefor approaches the climb

Happy happy joy joy!!

Jens Holsten is All Smiles!

The smiles stopped.

Jens leads into the steepness.

"Extraplume." Literally, more than plumb, is the term used to describe the steepness in Castillano.

Mikey looks forward to A2.

We cultivated psyche when our butt-floss harnesses threatened to cut off circulation to our legs forever!

The night passed rather quickly after Jens delivered us to the Awahnee bivy ca. 0100 hrs.

Mikey stitched together a few photos to make this incredible panorama of me greeting the Torres at first light. Everyone needs to check out his amazing photos at this site.

Final brew.

Massive rockfall on El Mocho. An example of how good weather can actually be too good...

Mikey and Jens looking skinny back at camp.

Parting shots.

Eat Your Words.

Mikey Schafer arrived in El Chalten just in time for a few days of good weather. Jens and I met him on the street as we were heading into the Torre valley with large loads. Mikey had sprained his ankle in Yosemite a couple months ago and, when coupled with jet-lag, had decided to sit out the albeit short weather window. In the mean time, he was schemeing about a much larger objective.

While Jens and I were running around the Valle Torre, Mikey was resting and meticulously planning for the next mission. He downloaded photos and topos to his I-phone, spent hours putting together the perfect tools for the job, and began religiously checking the weather. Finally, he bided his time so that Jens and I were sufficiently rested and well fed before dropping the idea on us.

Meanwhile, in the Valley of Torre, Jens and I had succeeded in carrying the loads to Niponino high camp and climbed halfway up the right pillar on El Mocho the following day. The same pillar had thwarted Neil and I a couple years earlier and provides a short approach to rock climbing. The following day we ran out of the Torre valley. Unbeknownst to us at the time, we would be returning in three days with Mikey to climb one of the biggest routes of our lives.

Getting on to the Torre glacier has become increasingly challenging. The lateral moraine supporting the final approach trail has collapsed into Lago Torre. This mass wasting event has revealed it’s true nature; a concave ice face below and house sized boulders glommed into the unsorted moraine above. It’s an entrance exam on the way in and icing on the cake on the way out. Either way, it’s looming in the back of ones mind, tucked into a little box and put away for later.

We were delighted to be accompanied by Hayden and Jason on our way in. All five of us donned helmets and somber expressions before darting across the collapsing moraine. Mikey kept pace and revealed that he felt his ankle for the first time while rushing across the unstable “trail.” We continued up the glacier, taking our time finding the easiest way. The sticky dot rubber on approach shoes does little to keep one upright while walking on the aerated ice of the lower Torre Glacier. Jen’s retort to slipping and putting a hand down, which was promptly sliced open, reminded us that every step counts in the mountains. Furthermore, this was the first event of the Journey that is best described as "eating our words." Throughout the rest of our time in the Torre Valley, no sooner would we open our mouths and an event would occur that was exactly opposite what we had just spoken to...

Jens, Mikey, and I made use of our previously established cache at Niponino. We pulled out two backpacks full of gear, set up the tent, and went about organizing the rack. Our lesurely attitude on the approach extended into the evening as we ate dinner and got horizontal around 2100 hrs. In fact, we took our time on the final approach to the route the next day and even laughed our way up the initial seven pitches of free climbing (up to 10c). However, the laughter stopped abruptly when we were forced to eat our words at the base of the headwall.

The clip-in point on my approach shoe (the front lace) failed as I sat down at the end of my lead block. From a seated position at the base of the headwall, I watched in detachment as I the shoe tumbled down the steep granite, no where near my two partners who had yet to make the final traverse. No need to yell. Only inner distain... I steeled myself for a few nights out with the extra effort of keeping the toes happy minus a toe box. I finally confided with Jens, who, understandably, responded with a barrage of questions. I answered with cultivated positivity. There was a much larger task at hand...

From our previous vantage points, the headwall looked as if it would be a perfect hand-crack. This idea was squashed when Jens led the first pitches of steep, exfoliating, cerrado como culio de munuca (closed like a dolls ass), crack. Jens's high-stepping on a 000 C3 to a hook move off an ice tool and Mikey's Rrrrrrr!!! rated (with only 3 pieces to protect a hundred feet of climbing) .75 crack and subsequent crack switch (read: large pendulum), earned them both medals of honor. At times throughout the next two days, we nearly chocked on our words.

Suffice to say, Mikey led a huge aid block on day 2 and Jens led us to an Awahnee ledge at around 0100 the next morning. All this coupled with a canister for the Jetboil that was never refilled to it's maximum and we were tired and dehydrated. I filled the three liter dromedary twice with snow from a small patch before we all passed out in our separate bivy systems.

We sat up more or less simultaneously at 0500 after enduring dreams of suffocating and having to put in ear plugs because of the increasing winds. A little water and an energy gel was "breakfast," even thought it would have taken a lot more actually break the fast. I led off the ledge and into broken crack systems with the idea of eventually breaking right to join the established lines. We simul- climbed on moderate terrain and traversed a red dike of chossy rock before beginning to see signs of the other routes.

Without much beta on the upper rambling pitches, I connected lines between tattered anchors and found my way to the base of a right slanting hands to fists crack that definitely earned extra credit as did the following steep crack off the belay. I pulled into the sun on the right side of the summit and finished the classic "spiral staircase" to gain the true high point. Looking down on my companions, Mikey stretched out more than likely asleep, and Jens seated while belaying, I realized that we had reached the halfway point.

The Cumbre is a knife edge ridge line which we walked individually. Mikey and I returned for a quick summit photo while Jens led the first of many raps. We paused before rapping the headwall to finish off the gas canister. The small amount of gas left was enough to melt a couple liters of water and rehydrate a meal. The blast of caffeine was exactly what we needed to perk our attention for the next step in the Journey.

Mikey led all the raps down the headwall (Standing ovation!!!). He rebuilt every anchor and salvaged gear from at least three different routes that we crossed. Halfway down the steepness, Jens and I looked across the Torre Valley for the source of the loud bass. It was rockfall on El Mocho. The debris ran the entire morainal approach and rock dust quickly swept over Niponino. Psycho-sematic responses included an increase in respiratory and heart rate. We looked at each other and tried to justify the fact that we had been there just a few days earlier.

Mikey belayed Jens back to the packs and we started post holing down the gully in iso-thermic snow up to our thighs. With a moderately tight rock shoe on my left foot, I quickly lost sensation in my toes. Strung out, I struggled to maintain positive as the now cold canister failed to produce enough pressure to ignite the stove. Our only food, a freeze dried meal would not be consumed until we reached base camp. Replacing the soaked socks and rock shoe was made better only by the insulated pants. When we reached the ramp I pulled off the heel of the rock shoe and the ensuing surge of blood can only be described as the "screaming barfies."

Having bragged to Jens about sticking the descent to Niponino in the dark during my first season, I took over the lead and turned off my headlamp. Would I be eating my words one last time? The ambient light from a nearly full moon illuminated the rubble strewn Torre glacier. I turned my lamp on again and slowly picked my way through the morainal debris. I used a combination of terrain recognition and intuition to bring us in above camp and then reset the trajectory for the large boulder which our tent hid behind.

It’s not the same without my longtime patagonian climbing partner and brother, Neil. He and I understand each other on a level that goes far beyond any other relationship in my life. Neil knows what I’m thinking and vice versa. Therefore, we easily move beyond the communication barriers that limit most of my relationships and get down to the true meaning. Neil came up with the name of the route, Rise of the Machines, after the Terminator theme (Judgement Day is right of our line). I requested his help in leu of our fading creativity (Direct South Face and Eat Your Words didn't ring in our ears). Muchismo gracias hermano!!!

Talking to Neil over the phone, he described how to quickly regain psyche after large routes. In doing so, he quoted one of our Argentine friends, Matheas, “Lots of rest, lots of meat, and a girl.”

Huge thanks to Mikey and Jens! The Rise of the Machines would not have gone down without Mikey's inspiration and skill and Jens's psyche and hardman status!

Salud amigos y suerte!

Rise of the Machines in the news:

Climbing Magazine

http://desnivel.com/escalada-roca/holsten-kauffman-y-schafer-abren-rise-of-the-machines-900-m-vi-5-11-a2-en-la-poincenot

http://www.planetmountain.com/english/News/shownews1.lasso?l=2&keyid=38936

http://wspinanie.pl/serwis/201112/29-Rise-of-the-Machines-Aguja-Poincenot.php

We get by with a little help from our friends!

2011-12-06T14:36:00.003-08:00

Sunset at Piedra Negra. Jens Holsten photo!

Sunrise on Gorra Blanca.

Jens Holsten photo. Approaching Pier Giogio.

Steep schrund climbing. Mountains 1. Dirtbags 0. Jens Holsten photo.

Fitz Roy!

Yeah for Powerbar GU and Fitz Roy!

Sunny Rock Climbing!!!

Guillomet's Brenner Ridge.

Jens doing what he does best. A bit of verglass kept it interesting.

Jens leading the wideness.

Cumbre! I have climbed 7 times on Guillomet and it's been pure fun every time. This is the first time either of us completed the boulder problem in order to stand on top. It's possible to put your hand higher than the summit without doing the boulder problem. However, there are some that think that it's nescisary to press up above the summit in order for it to count...

Cumbre Alfajore!

Traveling to the End of the Earth is rarely a smooth ride. However, friends make it all possible. My friend Jason put me on the plane in Los Angelos and is keeping the Subaru happy (loading it with surf boards) during my 4 month vacation.

Adversity builds character and is most easily overcome by deep breathing and a healthy dose of help from Amigos. This year, a volcanic fissure in Chile emitted an ash cloud that obscured the flightpath from Houston, TX to Buenos Aires, AR. While in Texas, a state that I've never been in before, I received lots of messages from friends encouraging and comforting me. Fortunately, the wind direction in BA changed and I hopped on the same flight the next day.

Once in BA I transferred airports and in doing so missed the flight to El Calafate. The Continental representative in the U.S. had informed me that there were three more flight to the same destination that day that I would surely be able to get a seat on. The reality of the situation was that all these flights were full, I didn't have a ticket, LAN didn't have any more flight to the destination until the following Saturday, and Aerolineas had a seat on a flight the next day they would sell me for 2000USD. Fortunately, A nice gentleman at LAN gave me the number for the U.S. continental office and I spent 40 minutes and 35 pesos securing a flight to Rio Gallegos.

The flight left at 2230 and landed in Gallegos at 0230. I gave into the first cab driver that said, "Taxi!" and spent 55 pesos driving to the Hospital ("No, yo querro un Hostel, not Hospital."), knocking on the door of a hostel with no room, and finally sleeping in the bus station with some friendly Bolivian workers...

The bus from Rio Gallegos to El Calafate was 3 hours long. I boarded the bus, put earplugs in and passed out. I woke to someone shaking me. When I pulled out the ear plugs and looked around, I realized that the bus was empty. We had arrived in El Calafate and I had slept the whole way. There was a couple hour layover in El Calafate where I bought some empinadas from a street vendor, made a new friend with an Argentine climber headed the same way, and gave a carabiner to a police officer who asked if I had any (he was psyched!)

Another three hour bus ride, during which I slept the whole way again, and I woke to the lower part of Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy Dominating the bus's windshield. First stop was at the Parque Nationales for the Leave No Trace speach, which I've heard no less than 7 times, and during which I saw my friend and park ranger (I do have friends that wear green pants, just not in North America), Kappa. The first friendly face in 10,000 miles of traveling. I hadn't seen anyone I knew since Jason put me on the plane in LA. How comforting to see someone who knows me!!

I put the two 51 lb. duffels on the longboard that Jason gave me a few years ago and rolled on over to a friends house where I dropped the bags. I was just starting my second lap around town on the longboard when I saw Jens. Jens had left the States a day after me and we arrived within an hour of each other...

Meeting Jens made everything better. We ate great food prepared by our friends at La Senyera and retired to the tent at Del Lago Hostel for some much needed rest. The next day was spent purchasing food, gas, and a pocket knife in preparation for heading into the mountains. I could hardly walk a block without seeing beaming familiar faces. Everyone asked, "Where is Neil?"

The weather was getting good and in Patagonia that means we go into the mountains. However, before we can head up, we have to deal with life stuff like where to put our gear that isn't headed up. Our friend Matheas stepped up huge and offered to store our duffels in his trailer. Another Amigo making our lives easier so we can do what we do best, go climbing!

We split the taxi with Rob and Jen and had a great time reliving memories on our hike into Piedra del Fraille. Jens and I opted to walk around the Estancia where we learned that they are now charging 75 pesos to cross their land. Not having the fee to pay the trolls to cross the bridge, we climbed through dense brush and crossed a couple treacherous washouts to meet up with Jen and Rob who paid.

A skinny kitten followed them the whole way up the hill to Piedra Negra where we set up the first light and they continued on toward the Supercanaleta. Jens and I woke at 0230 and made a few strong cups of coffee (our adventures in the mountains together are largely fueled by cafe and lots of psyche). We quickly dispatched of Paso Quadrado and descended to the Fitz Roy Norte glacier where the throngs of Supercanaleta bound hopefuls had kicked in a nice track. A few big holes where folks had punched in reminded us that this was indeed a large glacier.

Before the final climb to the supercan base we turned 90degrees right and took a bead on Pier Giorgio. The frozen crust on the snow supported our weight at times. When a bulge in the glacier changed the aspect that we were walking on, we punched through the crust up the the top of our boots. An hour past like this and we took turns breaking the crust.

Just before crossing under the Cerro Pollone ice cliff, we stopped for a quick Powergel and some water. Jens had been out in front for a while and I took over moving as fast as possible under the blue ice of the serac. We proceeded to slingshot/relieve each other as we passed under another serac before arriving at the Pier Giorgio schrund.

Jens belayed me as I placed a couple screws and began excavating for some purchase. A snow picket protected the final bit as I trenched in the slightly overhanging mass of unconsolidated snow. After a half hour of digging and no upward progress, I called it and came back down. Mountains 1, dirtbags 0.

The temperature went right through the roof and snow conditions on the glacier deteriorated on our walk down the Fitz Norte glacier. We found a flat rock to regroup and contemplated the next move. It was too late in the window to climb Afanasief even though that's what we really wanted to do.

The climb back to Paso Quadrado was hot... We spent the next day resting and dove into the tent on multiple occasions as rain squalls passed through. We woke at 2300 on Friday with the intention of climbing the Whillians route on Poincenot. Cafe again fueled the alpine start and we were on top of the Guillomet col at 0100 Saturday morning.

We descended onto a trackless Fitzroy East glacier and found a breakable crust over unconsolidated snow. Ryan and Peter's headlamps winked at us as they left Passo Superior a kilometer away. After an hour of slogging, the snow conditions proved too much and we retreated to Passo Guillomet where we had stashed a pair of rock shoes and a pair of Ganda approach shoes.

We brewed multiple cups of hot chocolate and waited for the sun. When it hit, we droped layers, ice tools, crampons, gloves, and the stove in preparation for a light ascent of the Brenner Ridge on Guillomet. A party the previous day had cleared most of the ice from the cracks and we enjoyed mostly warm rock and clean hand jams on the route.

We summited, both of us completing the boulder problem topout, around noon and descended the Amy Coulour. A freeze-dried meal of Thia Peanut noodles back at the pass fueled us to Piedra Negra where we ate the last package of Fruity Grans, packed the kit, and descended.

We made it to the road and were thumbing it by 2130. At around 2200 a cab pulled into El Pilar, dropped it's load of two gringos, and returned to pick us up. Jens and I were sitting on the side of the unpaved road in the dirt when the cab stopped and the driver, a beautiful young Argentine girl emerged. We were beside ourselves as we loaded the packs in the trunk and got in. In broken English, the girl asked what we had been up to. She said she was honored to give us a ride after we told her of our adventures. We were equally appreciative of her generosity. We talked about our favorite ice cream flavors and did our best to describe what Ben & Jerry's meant to us. The ice cream at Domo Blanco is still our favorite in the world! Thanks to our new friend, we made it back to town just in time to catch dinner at La Senyera. Jens and I had 41 pesos between us and split a bowl of fries and a huge hamberger. The total was 41 pesos and we vowed to return with the tip the next day. This is how we get by with a little help from our friends!!! HUGE thanks to everyone who is making this possible!!!

Desert Turkey-Fest

2011-12-03T12:26:00.000-08:00

Tim Dittman gives thanks for the Steve Carruthers Memorial

"How's it goin' over there?"

Best cupped hands splitter ever?

And now there is one more in my wolf pack!

Sunset on Sacred Cow

"Ooorra?"
Ben likes deep-fried turkey!

Needles Overlook

East towards Moab, from the Anticline Overlook

The Mitten and Atilla's Thumb

Mt. Humphreys

2011-11-20T08:08:00.001-08:00

North Face of Humphreys

We climbed the left gully to the East Ridge

Joel leads the couilee

Mike and Josh on the East Ridge

Dave and Joel on the East Ridge

Joel leading across Matrimony Ledge, a balancey traverse on snow

Mt Tom and Basin Mtn looking towards Bishop

Bailing below the summit block

That's my van, Joel's Suby, and Dave's Westy in the lot

Trish climbing in the Owens River Gorge

Really no reason to leave Bishop California, the weather has been great and there's any kind of climbin you want. Planet Kauffman has captured Dave "all free bro" and headed up into the 'pine for some adventurin. Just under 14k, Mt Humphreys dominates the Sierra skiyline west of the Owens Valley offering nearly 10k feet of elevation gain from town.

Our mission began at 5am as we cranked the Suby up unforgiving red-neck jeepin terrain, stopped a mile from the trailhead and began the hike. Amazingly, Josh and Mike from Bishop were also going to climb Mt. Humphreys and we chatted on the approach. Turns out they're also gettin' ready for a trip to Patagonia.

Armed to the teeth with sharp stuff Dave, Joel, and I motored to the huge bowl below the north face. Spindrift raked the moraine, starting as a distant swirl then quickly engulfing us in white noise. The coulior was variable and ranged from great styrofoam alpine ice to a spot of wallowing through powder snow. After nearly two months off from the shoulder injury it was fun to be back on the tools, climbing in the mountains with friends. We reached a notch where the gully hits the east ridge and started rock climbing, brushing snow from ledges with gloved hands. Josh and Mike were a few hundred meters behind us now. Sometimes the climbing hardened and we got out the rope, but mostly the terrain was fun and easy enough to solo.

At the final summit tower, the sun was sinking fast although it was only 4:00pm. With likely another half hour to the top and back, we decided to bail and get a start on the descent, back down the east ridge. We downclimbed and rappelled back to the notch, then broke off to the north down a different snow gully. Darkness overcame the team and we stumbled through snowy moraine, frequently falling in invisible booby-traps. We made it back to the road and the Suby, then rallied the rough road back to the parking lot. We were exhausted and psyched on our little mission.

Bishop Sessions

2011-10-11T14:15:00.000-07:00

Sunrise over the snowy Sierra from the Volcanic Tableland outside Bishop

Urban OW project-bring long sleeves, pants.

Between Black Sheep and the Mountain Light Gallery, get some!

Joel, Neil, Joshua, Patrick exploring the Happy Boulders

Joel

Patrick

Josh sends the classic Ironman Traverse at the Buttermilks

Waiting out some snow flurries

Last weeks storm has left the peaks white above the desert of Califorina, so the man van headed to Bishop for some of the best bouldering anywhere. This is a winter haven for climbers where one can crimp and smear the technical granite of the Buttermilk country or pull down on the steep ab-wrecking jugs of the Volcanic Tablelands. Choose your own adventure! With the shoulder still on the mend, I'm focused on taking photos with my new Canon S95, the world's best point and shoot. Stay tuned for more Yosemite action as Joel hooks up with zazen stone master Greg Collins, Wyoming's most prolific new router. Greg has been crushing longer than we've been alive and is still as psyched as ever.

Styke is high!

2011-10-04T11:13:00.000-07:00

Joel on the lamb

Finishing the Oz.

Whorl Mtn. background

Atop the Oz.

Dave's magnificent mushroom

Authentic Argentine cordero!

Logan kicks off the Burning Lamb festivities

Meat for all!!

Burning Lamb

Uniting with Team CO, everyone into the man van!

To the HULK!

The mini-dyno on Sunspot Dihedral

Looking down on thin RP's, starting the big dihedral

Finger locks forever!

The "Sunspot" pitch

Joining Positive Vibrations

Splittertonville, CA

Pat Pharo on Positive Vibes

Pat on the Hulk summit ridge

The 5.10 roof pitch on Tradewinds

Red pants+smile=send

Joel following the 5.11 thin bit on Tradewinds

In awe of J-Fink leading high on Tradewinds

Hackin the sack on a restful day

Josh clippin bolts at Tioga Cliff

Pat leading at Tioga

Lots to report on here, Planet Kauffman has reunited for Autumn, currently residing in Cali. The bad news first: I dislocated my left shoulder doing the infamous sideways falling dyno on Pitch 4 of Tradewinds, a sustained 5.11 route at The Incredible Hulk. Until that point, Joel, Josh Finkelstein and I had been crushing and having a blast. "Its not IF you get injured, but how you recover" Willy Stanhope. I have nearly full range of motion but can still feel the stretch on my bicep tendon; on the DL until further notice.

Back to the start, Joel and I met up for the season and proceeded to Tuolumne to get our granite crack on! We made a fun link of On The Lamb, Oz, and Hobbit Book, combining three domes and topping out on the highest in Tuolumne with killer thunderstorm views! A few days of cragging and we had a splitter weather report for The Incredible Hulk, an astonishing hunk of white Sierra granite tucked away at 11,000 feet on the border of Yosemite. Somewhere along the way we ended up at Burning Lamb, a Tahoe-based party celebrating the coming winter and good friends. The event was located in the sagebrush flats near Bridgeport and featured fully authentic Argentine cordero (lamb) raised in the foothills. A family of Argentine sheep herders slow-cooked the meat over open coals and we swore we in the southern hemisphere again. Festivities lasted long into the night around a raging bonfire.

Perfectly on que, our friends Josh Finkelstein and Pat Pharo rolled onto the scene and provided merriment and extra psych; we all piled into the Sprinter and headed off to the HULK!

Joel and I needed redemption after bailing off The Sunspot Dihedral last fall, and we got it! This route climbs an immaculate corner with never-ending finger locks and steep exposure, what more can you want? We met Pat and Josh on the ridge and rappelled in the fading sunlight, fully stoked on some of the best climbing ever...

After a rest day, our three-man team headed up the Tradewinds route, one that I've been scoping for a few years now. Less traveled than the classic Hulk routes, this one is slightly less sustained but has some great climbing. After the shoulder-ripping dyno, we discussed finishing the last 2 pitches but decided bailing was the thing to do. On cue, the weather deteriorated and we left the alpine zone to do some much needed soaking, in the hot springs of the Sierra Eastside.

The crew climbed the Rostrum yesterday, and a biblical storm seems to be descending upon the Sierra, so back to the Eastside for now. Stay tuned and stay styked!

Hair Raiser Buttress

2011-09-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

The centerpiece of Granite Basin climbing
Hair Raiser Buttress climbs the left side on 400 ft of slab

Starting off the ground

Cord following excellent slab, pitch 1

Right before the shitstorm engulfed us, so close!

The Eye of Sauron dwells over Mammoth Mountain

Well the field season has been cut short by persistent cold, wet weather throughout the Sierra. I went to explore Granite Basin, a large batholith of (yep) granite east of Mono Lake. Our mission was Hair Raiser Buttress, a classic 70's slab route established ground-up by Vern Clevenger; the route has since sprouted a few more bolts to ease the devastating cheese-grater fall potential. This still ain't no sport climb; I definitely had to check my head a few times while contemplating my skins textural resemblance to a block of fine white cheddar. Cord and I had been watching the thunderheads building and dropping out around us, and nearly 300 feet up it started to sprinkle, just as I finished leading. There was no mercy for Cord as he climbed the wet slab in a shivering, drenching deluge. Then we bailed! But we're going back real soon to finish this east-side gem...

The Pine Creek Freak

2011-07-26T20:27:00.001-07:00

Pine Creek Canyon, California

Maxwell Joseph onsights "Phenomenon"

Sarah Land on the Phe na na na

Shadow Ayala works his new route 'The High Lonesome'

Its a 5.12+ on the Ministry Wall, 60 meters!!!!!

On days off from froggin' I've been sampling some of the Sierra Eastside's finest granite in Pine Creek Canyon. Home to the infamous Pratt's Crack, an intimidating 40meter wide crack first climbed by Chuck Pratt way before camalots were concieved, year 1968!! Tucked away in this shady narrow side canyon, the climbing is spectacular. I've dreamed of climbing all the 5.11 sport routes here in a day, long pitches of technical footwork and scheelite patina pulling, a 10-15 pitch linkup! Crack climbing here also brings a smile to the wayward adventurer; Sheila, a beautiful dihedral is apparently the first 5.10 established on the Eastside in '71.

There is no end to the granite in Pine Creek; development has reignited all over the canyon, with new multi-pitch and sport climbs being opened regularly. They call Bishop local Ty Devore "Mr. Pine Creek', as sparked the recent new-routing torch. Maybe I can earn my own nickname, spurred by my intense psyche for this mind-blowing little spot...

Yosemite Valley Shots

2011-07-26T19:30:00.000-07:00

View from The Sentinel

Me leading on the Chouinard-Herbert

Following one of the 5.11 pitches

Finishing the crux pitch, after the Afro-Cuban Flakes

Sunrise illuminates the Cathedral group, from the West Face of El Capitan

Runnin from the sun!

The wacky traverse pitch

Ridiculously fun moderate terrain way up

Matt givin Thanks on El Cap's biggest ledge

....and praises!

As the bro mentioned earlier, I was living in Yosemite Valley this Spring volunteering on the NPS Peregrine Falcon monitoring project. It was incredible to observe these creatures as they incubated their eggs, caught food for the young chicks, and eventually the little dudes took flight! It looks like the Rostrum is one of the most successful nests in the park, go figure!

It was a super-wet and generally cool spring in California, which meant great cragging temps when it was dry. In June, I started climbing a few of the longer routes. The West Face of El Cap was my favorite route of the season, which I climbed with a young send-bot, Matt Wells from Bzoeman. Hard, technical cruxes down low, with fun knobby jug-hauling towards the top of the climb. A few days later, we suited up for the Sentinel's Chouinard-Herbert, another classic! The Afro-Cuban Flakes make up the hardest part of the route, where you pull over tough roof with tons of air under your feet! Hooking up with Taylor, a Valley fixture, we climbed the Astro-man, getting redemption from an earlier attempt being rained off AFTER the harding slot. Sorry no photos!(harding slot again)((its an extremely tight squeeze chimney)).

It seemed as if the snow in the high Sierra would never melt, and I finally made it to the Eastside and started work on July 7. Another season catching frogs is underway!

Status update

2011-07-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

Neil is working in the Eastern Sierra and climbing in Pine Creek where there is reportedly shade. The last few months found him in Yosemite. A combination of falcon monitoring (read: housing in the Valley and 1/2 price everything at the cafeteria) and free climbing allowed him to climb Astroman, the West Face, and attempt Freerider.

May and June found me in Leavenworth. The monkeys are STRONG in these parts. Current location; base of the Tetons, heading up. I find myself thinking increasingly about towers at the other end of the earth... and the monkeys that call the vertical realm home.

Sol!

The Nectar was JUICY!!! CBR

Jens follows the Argonaut ridge.

ALWAYS UPWARDS!

Mate, Porro y Todo lo Demás

2011-07-22T06:08:00.000-07:00

Real nice bivy ca. 15 pitches. Tom and Jim prepare for a night out.

Headwall.

Fitz Roy - North pillar

Mate, Porro y Todo lo Demás

900m 6c

Bean Bowers and Rolando Garibotti 1/2008, to top of the pillar; Matjaz Dusic and Lovro Vrsnik (Slovenia) 2/2011, to the summit (first integral ascent).

Poroto, Muchismo gracias para TODO!!!!

http://www.pataclimb.com/climbingareas/chalten/fitzgroup/fitz/mate.html

"The route was initially climbed to the top of the pillar and saw 5 or 6 repeats to that point before an integral ascent was completed. The first ascent party took ten hours to the top of the pillar. The name of the route was an attempt to keep up with Pedrini’s nearby “argentinismo” (Chimichurri y Tortas Fritas). Dusnik and Vrsnik did the first integral ascent of the route, climbing it over two days, making one bivy 20 pitches up and reaching the summit at 9PM of their second day. Thomas Melling (Norway) and Magnus Eriksson (Sweden) followed behind them, making an ascent of the lower part of Mate-Porro to Gringos Perdidos to the upper Casarotto route." Rolo

Palabra!!! Ten hours to the top of the pillar is FAST! We are in awe of the style Rolo and Poroto climbed in and seek to emulate their achievements. All of us shared in the frigid shower as the rime on the upper headwall began to melt. Timing is everything!

Sacred Space

2011-04-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

Dave Elder and I had only been reunited for a few minutes when our collective conscience re-hatched the idea. Sacred Space. The discussion that ensued around the campfire was carried out in reverent undertones. "Isn't the original start 5.9X?" "How wide is the squeeze?"

A mandatory rest day preceded our attempt.

Dave leads the crux Off-Width, which involves liebacking the outside edge of an offset 6" crack. It's possible to get thigh jams with the left leg. The belay for the squeeze is ten feet to Dave's right. The Kayenta layer on top of the King of Pain has been eroding for some time and a lot of this less resistant layer ends up on this crux traverse and at the bottom of the squeeze, the location of the anchors (two bolts).

Dave follows the last bit of steep squeeze. The consensus is that it's a 5.11 wide right off the belay. Not easy to get into, not easy to stay in. The first gear is a purple TCU in a horizontal at 20ft. Further up, two tipped out Green Camalot's (#6's) do a poor job of inspiring confidence. Bro's are the only way to protect the upper bit... This is the second time (first time on lead) I had to enter a Sacred Space to continue.

Dave and I reveling in the Cumbre Moment after having completed the jump-across from the South to North summit of King of Pain. The photos do a poor job of revealing the constant 20mph wind out of the Northwest. Dave waited for five minutes for the wind to die while attempting the jump. There was no reprieve until he was on the other side...

Huge thanks to Dave Elder for being super psyched and engaging the Enemy with me!

2011-04-07T17:39:00.000-07:00

Alex Stroud on belay duty

T-Bow FA of Twitterpated

H to the K on belay

Drillin'

Trevor eyes Bloodsport

FA of Bloodsport

T-Bow

Indian Creek is fun, lots of fun. I've been climbing with my good friend Trevor Bowman, a Wyoming boy with a taste for drilling new routes. So far we've put up Montana Gangster at Scarface, Twitterpated at Donnelly Canyon, and Bloodsport at Left Rambo. These routes are all about 5.11 and definitely recommended if your looking to avoid the chalkdust torture of the standard Creek 'classics" and find some nice crispy cracks. Get some!

2011-04-07T17:23:00.000-07:00

Hayden crushing the overhanging start to Mondo, .12a. Alex Stroud photo.

The crack only looks the same size because it's foreshortened. In reality, this poddy start is purple and green camalots and the upper 120ft. is #4's. Alex Stroud photo.

Neil's favorite route, Columbian Hit Man. Alex Stroud photo.

Hayden committing to overhanging on Broken Brain. Alex Stroud photo.

Lots of friendlies around the desert this time of year. We were psyched to be joined by Hayden and Michael for some soul crushing HARD leads and epic stories, respectively. Thanks for the brilliant company!!!

Hemispherical Migrations

2011-03-06T13:57:00.000-08:00

The Frog Pod

Glass Frog

Lemur Leaf Frog

Horned Marsupial Frog

Orchids

A carniverous Pitcher Plant

The speed of airline travel always fascinates me. Joel and I boarded the seasonal migration vessel on the evening of March 1st in Buenos Aires, Argentina and slept intermittently until our arrival in Atlanta, Georgia early on the 2nd, total time travel!
The parents met us at the airport and we visited the Atlanta Botanical Gardens to check out an amphibian conservation project that's breeding frogs from Panama. These frogs have literally been rescued from death, just ahead of the wave of the deadly Amphibian Chytrid Fungus which is sweeping the globe. There is no cure for the disease caused by the skin fungus, and mortality rates are staggering. This facility is making a huge contribution by keeping species from extinction, and possible for re-introductions in the future.

Stay tuned for climbing at the Tennessee Wall!

Fitz Roy-Pilar Norte

2011-02-27T07:20:00.000-08:00

El Chaltén o Monte Fitz Roy

Maté, porro, y todo lo demás follows the big dihedral on the North Pillar (left side of photo)

My favorite pitch, 10+ hands and fists!!

10am

(Silvia Vidal photo)

Joel juggin the beauty

Wild dike traverse

11am

(Silvia Vidal)

Buenissimo!!

3pm

Joel reaching the big ledge and pulling the rope up.

4pm

Joel leading off the "3-star" bivy ledge

5pm

Looking down on the 3-star bivy ledge

7pm

Joel starting the upper Casarotto route on the Fitz Roy headwall the next morning.

11am (way too late)

Neil following the last pitch before the bail. We were soaked and very high on Fitz Roy.

(Pilar Norte behind)

1pm

Back on the Pilar North, preparing to rappell

6pm

Rappelling Casarotto with the remnants of our green rope, using Jose and Greg's 40m cords

12pm

SAFE!

4pm

A full moon lit our way as we climbed up to Paso Cuadrado at 0100 on Saturday, February 19. 22 hours later we were on top of the North Pillar of Fitz Roy, having climbed Rolo and Bean's line on the right side.

Neil crushed the first lead block which included 16 pitches of crack climbing up to 5.11 (7a). We passed two parties along the way and the third at the "3-star" bivy ledge where my lead block started. Between 5 and 11pm, I led cracks that started in immaculate corners. As darkness caught us, we were still a few pitches from the top of the pillar. As the angle eased, we entered chossy and wet weaknesses. After 9 pitches, we found a small place to pass the night on top the pillar.

The next morning I heard singing... Was I hallucinating? No!! It was Nico and Sean topping out the East Face. We were inspired! Going for the top of Fitz Roy, we found increasing amounts of water melting off the rime ice. What began as slightly annoying, totally drenched us and threatened us with hypothermia.

We rappelled with nearly numb hands and found a ledge to dry out. A couple steep pitches and a core shot rope brought us back to the top of the pillar. We began rappelling the Casarotto route around 3pm. Our orange half-rope was soon stuck behind flakes and we cut it. At this point, there were four of us rapping on two 40 meter sections of rope...

The Casarotto is equipped for 60 meter raps and we found ourselves building every other anchor. Fortunately, we had lots of extra sections of rope to build with (after chopping three ropes). Around 11pm we were stopped by high winds as we became exposed to the prevailing Westerly. At this point, we decided to bivy on a 2ft. by 8ft. ledge that had ice for water (we carried one jetboil). The night passed with Los Hermanos holding each other to keep warm and constantly shifting positions as limbs went numb.

The next morning we rapped over the jammed block and into a gully of loose rock and running water. We avoided spontaneous rockfall by moving lookers right onto a rock rib and eventually onto the slabs below the Pillar proper. The last rap over the huge shrund brought much needed relief!!! We were back in Piedra Negra where our tent and food awaited a couple hours later.

We will be Stateside in a couple days. It's sunny in Bariloche and we're headed out for a day of sport climbing. Ciao!

Splittertonville (aka Red Pillar)

2011-02-16T14:54:00.000-08:00

Hayden and Gleason crushing.

Maurissimo!

Some of the best granite, ever!

Steep course grain granite.

The Red Man on the Red Pillar. Roy dominates the background!

Looking down on Guillamet.

February is shaping up to be a fair amount of good weather. I teamed up with Josh and Maury for a quick climb of the Red Pillar. Our amigos, Hayden and Gleason climbed the route ahead of us. The immaculate crack systems were almost as amazing as the company.

The forecast continues to look good. The monkeys are heading into the hills...

Coda-Aguja Desmochada

2011-02-14T09:38:00.000-08:00

Good morning!

Aguja Desmochada, Aguja de La Silla, and Cerro Fitz Roy

Nico low on Desmo'

Josh contemplates the Southwest face of Aguja Desmochada

Pitch 1 of Coda

Steeps on Pitch 2

Whart-dog!

Glory!

Pitch 4

High over the Torre Valley

Josh traversing the ridgeline-summit of Aguja Desmochada

Cumbre!

South face of Desmo'

Coda follows the system right of the big right-facing corner

then traverses to gain the left skyline ridge to the top

During a three-day period of high pressure, I established a new route on Aguja Desmochada with Josh Wharton. After leaving Nipo Nino base camp at a casual 5am, we blasted the approach and started climbing on Golden Eagle, a Huber route, at 730. Our intended route turned out to be way to windy, so we traversed far right on the massive ledge below the steep South face. Another group was climbing Golden Eagle, so we kept going right. "Maybe The Sound and the Fury. How about El Facon? Nah, let's put up something new!" We launched into unclimbed territory and found 7 new pitches up to 5.11+ with two points of AO; a pendulum to avoid a seam, and a move around a scary detached flake. Josh was crushing, as usual, and I jugged with the pack for this steep part of the climb. As the angle eased off on the upper face, we traversed left, again crossing the established routes, and joining Golden Eagle for the upper ridge finish of the peak.

We had been battered by high winds all day, and at this point gusts were beginning to knock us over and seriously affect balance and mental security. We rapped off the other side of the mountain, following the Puerta Blanca route to the col between Aguja La Silla. We brought gear for a super-lite suffer bivy but the intense winds and ice conditions on the col forced us to reconsider and continue rappelling unknown terrain into the Poincenot gully. At this point, the descent became quite serious! Wind gusts were lifting us upwards on the rappels; we had to stack the ropes in the backpacks or they would immediately disappear totally out of control. The face we headed down was absolute shit rock, giant detached flakes threatened to destroy our ropes and us, and we had no idea just how big it was. The idea of re-leading any of this terrain to retrieve a stuck rope was horrifying. Our mental state was fried and patience was ultimately tested. Miraculously we made it to the gully system with only one stuck rope behind a monster flake; Josh mystery-jugged while I tried not to think about what it could be stuck on.

We needed a break, so we huddled down for 3 hours until the sun began to light the landscape. It was hellishly windy, uncomfortably cold, but not dangerously cold, and time passed very slowly. Once light had returned, we headed down to the base of the route, down the loose moraine, and eventually hit base camp at 1230, for a 31 hour push.

I staggered out of the Torre Valley that evening, utterly spent and absolutely psyched on our mission! I wondered what our friends had experienced during the last few days, and wished everyone climbing safe returns. As I crested the last hill before El Chalten, the electric orange glow of the generator-fed pueblo lit up the sky, and killed all the stars. I felt an odd transition as I stepped onto the paved street of town and clicked toward my dumpy apartment. It was surreal to think how far out there and isolated we had felt, totally reliant on one other being; now we were surrounded by thousands of people.

Coda

(Copp-Dash Memorial)

V 5.11+ AO

Aguja Desmochada

Neil Kauffman and Josh Wharton

February 9-10, 2011

Freeze or Fry

2011-02-14T05:41:00.000-08:00

Joel in an early crux

Me pulling the same section

Navigating mixed terrain around baked, rotten ice

Joel starts the crux lead

Incredible!

Looking Northwest to Lago del Desierto and Chile

Awaiting a lift back to town

These photos are from a late January assault on Aguja Guillamet, where Joel and I climbed a really fun mixed ice, snow, and rock route on the East face of the peak during a good one-day weather window. Temperatures fluctuated drastically, and the snow was quite soft as we crossed the bergschrund and started the route. The first four pitches had stimulating climbing, but were severely sun-affected, making the ice and snow difficult and insecure. I was glad to be following! As we got higher, the line retreated into the shade and refroze, just in time for a magnificent, thin, crux ice runnel!! We cruised easy terrain for another pitch, then hit the summit snow slope and romped to the cumbre, for Joel's fifth Guillamet summit, and my third. We're uncertain whether this terrain has been climbed, but consider it quite likely as part of one route or another. Our goal was having fun, and we found it!

Re Puesto!

2011-01-04T09:32:00.001-08:00

Hiking in to try Cerro Pier Giorgio on an earlier window

Cerro Pollone showing 'Re Puesto'

Cerro Pier Giorgio on the left, Cerro Pollone center, Aguja Pollone on the right

Jim below 'Re Puesto' on the trudge out

Excellent granite on Pitch 4!

Me on Pitch 6, with Fitz Roy

High on the snowfield

Gaining the upper ridge after the snowfield

Heady mixed terrain on Pitch 7

No fall zone!

Stellar knife-edge hand traversing!

Jim nears the pendulum on Pitch 8

Rigging the lower out off the pendulum point

Glad to be back to the ridge after ascending the A1 pitch

The final pitch, with the memorable slab

Behind me, Cerro Pollone West Summit and the Hielo Continental

Jim el la cumbre primera!

Me on the cumbre!!

Jim rigs the first rappel

Rapping Cerro Pollone

Rrrrre puesto!

Speed-Qils

"hacer dedos"

thumbin it back from Rio Electrico

The early hours of 2011 brought splitter weather to the Fitz Roy Massif of Argentine Patagonia! Two days of high pressure, low winds, and extremely warm temperatures sent all the climbers in El Chalten to the hills. Jim Toman and myself had many ideas, us usual, where to go climbing. We were psyched to climb Fitz Roy via the Afanasieff Ridge, however, an insecure forecast and rumors of at least three other teams thinking about the route pushed us to find new terrain. And we were rewarded on Cerro Pollone, a giant two-summited peak west of Fitz Roy.

We awoke from a short nap at Piedra Negra basecamp to Wolfmother blasting the speakers and Fruitigrans, breakfast for alpine champs! We picked up our gear cache at Paso Cuadrado and descended by headlamp to the Fitz Roy North Glacier. The stars were out and a sliver moon illuminated the gnarled terrain of a landscape deep in the throes of change. Picking our way through the jumbled ice and rock, our massive objective began to show through the dawn.

The first rock buttress is threatened on both sides by intimidating hanging seracs, and our line elegantly weaved through the danger zone, mas o menos! My lead block started with a wet chossy moss crack, which left me cursing and a bit scared! Pitch 2 threw some nice gritty granite crack and a physical chimney that felt a full grade harder with our "alpine packs", toting a full ice kit, armed to the teeth for whatever we found! Pitch 3 was a beauty! Those cracks that turn dreams to reality; we are in Patagonia sending a new route!!! Highlighting the 4th pitch in our minds, more quality stone and an exposed 10 meter hand traverse! 5 and 6 were a bit loose and gritty, but they got us to the snowfield, where we transitioned to boots, crampons, and tools for 200m of simul-climbing moderate terrain.

At this point we had reached the upper ridge, it was about 11am, and psyche was high! I handed over the rack to Jim and he led directly off an exposed hanging belay on delicate mixed terrain, pitch 7. The ridge here is incredible! On our side, steep snow and rock; peering over the other side, the mountain immediately dropped hundreds of meters to another glacier, totally overhanging! After some great ridge romping, we stopped to melt water and eat some sugar. Our bodies were feeling worked from hard exertion in the intense southern sun, very little water or food, and mental strain. We found hardly any free water on the entire route, which we were expecting to keep us hydrated through our alpine straws.

The next two pitches were the route's most difficult passages. After a beautiful hand and fingers crack, the wall completely slabbed out. Options here? Punch it up the slab! Yeah right. The feelings of doubt and disaster were close in our heads, but you gotta keep it together in these spots! Instead Jim pounded a pin and made a pendulum left into another system. The next system was gritty and wet, it went down at A1, and probably would be 5.11 free. Once again I was feeling totally buggered at this long belay. My only savior was suckling the last drops of my MSR Dromedary and savoring a delicious Ricola!! We found more snow and fired up the Jet-boil to stoke the psyche again. The next pitch was stimulating, traversing below the ridge on exposed 5.10 crack and face climbing, capped by a strenuous offwidth leaving me nearly puking! Pitch 11 needed aid again right off the belay, mostly due to extreme fatigue. The terrain relented a bit, then a memorable short slab was the final obstacle to the cumbre!

We stood just below the highest point of a totally unclimbed summit! "Have at it Jimmy, that was a sick lead block and you earned it!" FIRST ASCENT!!!!

It was around 8pm and the light was beginning to get really magical. The views were surreal and the moment even more so. To the west, the entire Fitz Roy group in all its splendor; a little to the south, the Torres, with Cerro Torre totally dominating the scene. We could see the castle of Cerro Murallon way south on the icefield. Vast expanses of white and blue ice, mountains of dark black rock, and winding glacial paths twisting to oblivion. To the north, the vibrant green beech forests, deep blue lakes, and dry brown pampas of Argentina, rage on against the cold desolation of the Hielo Continental.

The hour was late and it was definitely time to get off this mountain. We made three double-rope rappels down the east face and found a nice protected bivy for the night. Darkness had made the rest of the descent treacherous without knowing our path. Jim and I contorted into his "one-man" bivy sack and cuddled the short night away.

The dawn came and we slowly shook ourselves into consciousness, feeling wary and quite stiff. I felt like I couldn't eat another piece of sugar, my stomach was totally churned, and my head felt wrecked. Everything seemed to take way too much effort and we were feeling cranky and irritable. The descent opened up nicely and a few more easy rappels and downclimbing on snow brought us back the start of the mountain. WHOA!

The rest of Sunday, January 2, 2011 was spent stumbling back across the radio-active glacier, mumbling about bife, re-applying SPF 110 sunscreen, and frying our brains to a nice crisp. The trudge back up Paso Cuadrado was blurry and tiring. By the time we reached the tent at Piedra Negra, Jim was brutalized, I was a total space-case, and we were both fully amped on the route and tripping out. This state of mind is rare. As I drank water and made some soup, I would close my eyes and immediately start dreaming vividly. There was no time lapse between "awake" and dreaming. After a few hours of this, we packed it up and hiked down. Strategically cached along the trail back to town, we found our Speed Unlimited energy drinks and Quilmes cerveza. I'm not sure we would have made it without these tasty beverages to fuel the fire.

Re Puesto!

V 800m 5.10 A1

First Ascent of Cerro Pollone East

January 1-2 2011

Neil Kauffman and Jim Toman

Los Hermanos in the news...

www.climbing.mattters.com/

www.climbing.com/news/hotflashes/

http://www.planetmountain.com/english/News/shownews1.lasso?keyid=37819

http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web11w/newswire-lobuje-east

http://www.thebmc.co.uk/News.aspx?id=4062

Solstice Celebrations

2010-12-22T08:53:00.000-08:00

Val Bois is the pointy mini-needle right of Fitz Roy

The ice line spills through the obvious chimney

A good day

The ice line on Val Bois, melting rapidly

Friends at Rio

Mountain moments

Paso sunrise

As the planet's tilt maxes out, Antarctica receives eternal energy from the sun, the Arctic remains encased in frigid darkness. Imagine living directly on the Equator for an entire lifespan and never seeing the shift; it must be quite an abstract concept! Here at -49 degrees south, near the tip of South America, we're experiencing 18 hours of light during this incredible phenomenon. It seems a sense of calm fills the people of El Chalten, for there is no doubt enough time for to do it all, or do nothing.Yesterday our crew went sport climbing across the Rio Vueltas, t'was a warm, sunny day. We marveled at stacking lenticulars, and the wispy, ghost-like apparitions that darted through the needles of the Fitz Roy Massif. Cerro Torre appeared and disappeared through the ephemeral mists. Eventually, the sun descended behind the mountains and we headed home. An excellent solstice celebration!

Last week, Joel and I headed into the mountains under clear and windy skies with about five days of food; our mission was living at the Rio Blanco base camp and going higher to Paso Superior on climbing days. Rio is a protected beech forest with lots of life: birds, bugs, and plants, and climbers. Paso is the high camp, perched precariously on the Fitz Roy glacier; life here is only climbers and maybe a stray bird.

We had two days for climbing out of Paso, starting from Rio its over 4000ft and 3-4 hours, yeah! The first day was incredibly warm on the glacier, melting the snow, our intended ice line, and brains. We spent a few hours scoping routes and gazing at the jaw-dropping NE Pilar of Fitz Roy. Home to the big bad climbs like Royal Flush, El Corazon, and Linea de Eleganza, this immaculate buttress of the best rock in the world gets you psyched! The North Pilar was about

as dry as it gets and ready for action. We stashed our gear and headed back to Rio to rest for the next weather window.

We played chess with our Bulgarian friend, tried very unsuccessfully to read his newspaper, ate lots of food, listened to music, did lots of yoga, made bird calls, and slept quite a bit.

For the next climb, we left Rio at 8pm, rocked out to the I-pods the whole way up, and made it to Paso at 12am. As we left the warmth of the snow cave, we could see our friends Mikey Shaefer and Jens Holsten high on Mermoz attempting a new route. Shortly after this moment, full on white-out conditions descended upon us. "Well maybe this will let up pretty soon,

right?" After all the forecast was for a full day of excellent weather, that's why we came. Turns out the forecast totally missed this one; by the time we made it to the first crevasse starting the Whillans route on Poincenot half a meter of light fluffy was accumulating without end. Pretty simple decision here, BAIL! On our way down we met our Austrian friends huddled in a bivy sack "waiting it out". The situation was comical, what else can you do but laugh?

Joel has left El Chalten for guiding on Aconcagua with John Race and the Northwest Mountain School; they're planning on finishing by mid-Jan at the latest.

Check it out here, http://mountainschool.blogspot.com/

Stay tuned for adventures in the 'pine with...

Jim Toman!

Jared's Nepal Photos

2010-12-04T13:52:00.000-08:00

Practicing our snow-swimming-on-slabs skills while getting used to the altitude.

We were standing on the false summit of Lobuche East just as the sun was threatening to come up and provide some much needed warmth. I was trying to look mean... We simul-soloed the ridge without using the fixed lines. Our decision not to continue to the true summit allowed for a more interesting traverse when we climbed the SW face.

Descending the Normal Route, Lobuche East. Our high point on this first attempt was the second sunlight false summit from the right. It took us about 8 hours to traverse the ridge when we climbed the SW face...

That's me attached to the headlamp out there. This was the final alpine ice traverse to the weakness on the Southwest Face of Lobuche East.

These are the opening mixed pitches that granted us access to the upper water ice.

Topping out the first bit of WI 5+. Nice lead Jared!!!

I kept the down jacket on for this belay, not because it was cold, but because there was no where to hide from the assault from falling ice. When will clothing manufacturers realize that we need padded shoulders too?

This was the final water ice pitch. Fortunately it had been baking in the sun for a few hours!! The biggest challenge was the section just above where I am now in the picture. The ice all but disappeared and revealed the chossy weak rock below.

That's me coaxing the stove to make some water at 19,800ft. after climbing a lot and drinking a little.

Ben, Kevin, and Freddie tagged the bar saying, "Snow climbing sucks Bullocks." Jared tagged just left of theirs.

Big THANKS to Jared for sending me some of his photos and allowing us to post them.

Around Kathmandu

2010-12-03T15:53:00.000-08:00

Jared and I spent four days in the "mandu" before flying to Phaplu. Kathmandu is one of the most polluted cities in the world. Out of the filth rise 2500 year old Bhuddist stupas. This one is Hannuman's Monkey Temple.

The monkeys play a game called, put the prayer flags in your mouth, spin, and then try to knock each other off.

Kathmandu as seen from the monkey temple.

I really like the saying on this wishing well. "May Peace Prevail on Earth!!!!!"

The Buddha's eyes seen in all four directions and are always watching...

Khumbu Beyal

2010-11-26T22:31:00.000-08:00

This tree caught my attention because it symbolizes the Solu Khumbu. The lower and middle hills are inhabited by Rias and Tamang people who use their surrounding resources, sometimes almost to the point of exhaustion. The mountains are inaccessible to most people and therefore remain untrammeled (with the exception of the normal routes on the most popular peaks which contain exuberant amounts of fixed rope). This is similar to this tree which has been stripped of nearly all it's branches except for those inaccessible at the top.

These mani stone are carved with Bhuddist mantras. It is customary to walk past these stones on the left, clockwise, as a reminder to incorporate ceremony in our daily lives.

Our Rias porter passing mani stone on the left.

We hiked past this really old stupa on the day after flying into a dirt airstrip at Phaplu. When the Khumbu Beyal (a safe haven that exists as a metaphysical location) was opened to the outside world in the 1950's, the only way in was the 80 mile hike from Jiri. Phaplu is a little less than half the distance to Lukla from Jiri.

The two 12 hour days of hiking from Phaplu took us up to 9,000ft. and down to the jungle at 2,500ft. repeatedly. The trail was never flat. It was possible see to where we would spend the night shortly after starting, only to arrive there 10 hours later.

Our Rias porters, these guys carried our 30kg duffle bags in sandals using a tumpline while we carried our 20kg packs. The trip from Phaplu to Lukla in two days would have been impossible without their help.

Two goraks above Namche.

Sherpa culture is a mixture of ancient ways (notice the stone carvings) and more modern ones Our cook is caught talking on his cell phone as we walk past mani stones.

Two sherpanis harvest late season potatoes in Pheriche.

A hydrolic powered prayer wheel endlessly spins blessings.

Dingboche.

Ben and I acclimating in the Blue Room.

Full moon on Taboche.

Ama Dablam bathing in the moonlight.

Tawoche, Cholatse, and Lobuche.

Kantega North Face.

Seasonal Yak herder dwellings.

Chomolungma (Everest) catches the last rays of sun.

Jared excavates the crack on our acclimitization climb.

Ama Dablam.

Jared didn't pose for this photo...

The summit (far left) and false summit of Lobuche East.

Makalu, Baruntse, and Ama.

Jared greeting the new day, Lobuche East's normal route.

We established a base camp across the lake from Cholatse's North Face. Lots of Dahl Bhat!!

We spotted this line and it was love at first sight. Maybe next time...

SW face of Lobuche East. No need for a route line to be drawn in.

The entry to the weakness.

Our intention was to be off the water ice by the time the sun hit it... We all know that what we want is very different from what we get.

Jared looking pensive (hour 17) after climbing through bicep cramping and over 2,000ft. of steep water ice and mixed terrain.

Rest day in Namche! The prayer wheels were turning on this beautiful day.

Cholatse from the West.

Gokyo lakes.

Chomolungma, Nuptse, and Lhotse as seen from Gokyo Ri.

Pherilapche with our attempted ice line just left of the vertical cairn.

Detached curtains with a lot of mountain above. We walked away.

BAIL!!!

The jet-stream raking the top of Nuptse, Lhotse, and Chomolungma.

The local avians had no idea how hungry we were...

Mark brandishes his sword with gusto.

During the 8 days we spent waiting for a flight out of Lukla, Mark kept the Rockshee coming.

Season of the Monkeys

2010-10-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

Storm clouds roll off El Capitan

Sentinel Rock shrouded

AJ on the Rostrum Highline

Libby showing off mad steez

Peter sending

AJ walks at Sunset

October brings sun, rain, and monkeys to Yosemite Valley Cali. Its been a blast sharing tales and laughter with many, many friends in this great gathering ground. After nearly a week of drizzle and downpour, inevitably the sun returned to the stone, and psyche was high throughout the Valley. Rappelling Border Country with Cody Simms, we counted over 25 separate headlamps on The Cap'n! The seam between sky and wall blurred as the lights mimicked the stars. Border Country is a classic climb on the right side of Middle Cathedral. We're grateful for the many hours put into equipping this stellar line by the FA team: Mikey Shaefer, Dana Drummond, and Cory Richards. After six pitches of fun 5.10ish climbing, the headwall rears up, providing four more pitches of delicate face climbing interspersed with fun orange jugs reminiscent of the Tuolumne Meadows rock. Go do it!!

My good friend Peter Thompson showed up on the scene ready to do some of Yosemite's famous highlines. Highlining is an offshoot of slacklining where one walks a tensioned piece of webbing strung between two points, in this case HIGH off the deck!!! A harness and safety tether keeps the slacker alive should he lose balance and plummet. I went out with the crew and shot some awesome images of the Rostrum highline.

Later, jokester Colin Haley and I climbed the Rostrum Regular North Face in a very enjoyable outing. After doing this route two years ago with Joel, it was awesome to come back and remember those classy stacked cracks!

After finding a motivated partner, James from the UK, we went big on the Direct North Buttress of Middle Cathedral, a route infamous for its heady runout face climbing and potential for unplanned bivouacs. The climb was excellent! Only a few sections of heads up climbing, pitch after pitch of glorious rock, and hundreds of feet of chimneys to cap it off. We started the route with Mikey Shaefer and Kelley Cordes, having a fabulous time of it and practicing our best "proper English, mate". And then, Kelley dislocated his shoulder on a tough roof traverse!! It wasn't going back in, so they quickly bailed...we were totally "gutted" for him. James and I finished the route as darkness fell and found the notorious Kat Walk, a hyper-exposed 4th class traverse across the upper wall of Middle Cathedral. Perhaps it was better not to see the 1500+ feet of air beneath our feet as we grabbed trees, bushes, and rock, gingerly making our way by torch and giving a few "meows" now and then. The monkeys on the Cap'n surely saw our path as they went off with a cacophony of calls to which we whimsically wailed in reply! The descent went way smoother than we were expecting and made it back to the car quickly, about 12 hours car to car, yeah!

With another blitz of rain on the radar, it was time to make my exodus before Tioga Pass closed shutting off contact with the East Side of the Sierra. My travels continue into the great Colorado Plateau, switching medium from granite to sandstone...

NEPAL!!!

2010-10-10T08:23:00.000-07:00

Jared and I arrived in Kathmandu on Oct. 7, after a 17 hour flight from LA to Thailand and another 3 hour flight here. What a TRIP it's been so far!! I watched 7 movies on the flight over and stepped off the plane in another Universe. This is definately the third world!!!

Highlights include checking out the 2500 year old Bhuddist Stupas. Hannuman (the Monkey diety) has an especially colorful temple with lots of prayer flags and monkeys swinging from them. The approach entails 365 stairs, one for each day of the year, climbing through a jungle.
We have also enjoyed the company of Ben, Kevin, and Freddie who stayed with us at the Thorong Peak Guest House. Freddy, having spent weeks here reseaching his new book, showed us the Momo Shack and other Kathamandu off the beaten path offerings.

Our friend Nima Sherpa is helping us by securing our climbing permits for Lobuche East and Cholatse, flights to Lukla, a cook, and a couple porters. He is the best! Nima met us at the airport at 0700 where we commenced waiting to board a twin otter that will take us to the short and steep landing strip in Lukla. The billowing cumulus clouds prevented the visibility needed to make the flight safe. We prudently returned to Nima's for lunch and some needed reprieve from the hustling 3rd world lover that is Kathmandu.

We are looking forward to flying on the afternoon of the 11th and then begining the trek to Namche, a famous Sherpa village in the Khumbu. We are extra lucky to experience life on the other side of the world... ASIA!! What will the mountains be like? Big, icy, rocky, and sublime!

California's Indian Summer

2010-10-02T11:17:00.001-07:00

Dan on PV

G on splitter terrain

PV crux

High on Positive Vibes

1st pitch of the Sunspot route

G checkin' out the entrance to Airstream

As if all I do is climb at the Incredible Hulk...wouldn't be so bad! At long last, Los Hermanos Kauffman have been reunited, again for crushing! Joining us on this mission, ultra send-bot, "G Dubble" Collins, rope-gun, zazen master...

After my first attempt on Positive Vibrations a few years ago and subsequent various mishaps, we finished the route in style and loved it all!

The next day tried Sunspot Dihedral, and realized our bodies weren't ready for more Hulkage, with 3-man hanging belays. In my experience, it takes a few tries to get these incredible routes figured out and sent. We'll be back!

Stay tuned for Half Dome in a day photos with Kinloch Mason Earle!

THE HULK

2010-09-16T08:11:00.000-07:00

Little Slide Canyon

Outguard Spire is the first tower on the right

Tapin' for the Polish Route

Nuff' said!

Tim leads high on The Hulk

Tim dutifully retrieves our stuck rope

Outguard Spire, Pitch 2

Contemplating The Hulk

Tip of Outguard Spire

Amped for his first mission to the Incredible Hulk, Tim Dittman met me in Bridgeport, CA, one of the Eastside's many Republican strongholds. After wandering through the Twin Lakes RV city, the beaten path passed quickly beneath our feet. Returning to Little Slide always gets me fired up; this magical narrow canyon has some of the best granito anywhere!

Our mission for the day is the Polish Route, rumored to have excellent wide climbing on the left side of the Incredible Hulk. As usual, the Hulk did not disappoint, this route is amazing! The twin splitter cracks visible from afar were the highlight, two cracks to jam! After "finishing" the route on the large ledge below the ridgeline, we contemplated our options.

Continue up the ridge? Daylight fading...no.

Rappel into the gully to the North? Looks chossy and not so fun.

Rappel the unknown route to the left, hoping Peter Croft had a 70m rope as well. Yes!

The rappels down Blowhard went great, Croft did have a 70...

Except for one stuck rope, which Tim retrieved quickly.

The next day dawned cool and windy as a cold front moved into the area. As we lay in our bags it was pretty obvious Positive Vibes would be a full on Patagonian style sacrifice to the wind god, which we weren't into at the time. So, we headed down valley to Outguard Spire a really neat looking tower with a reported great route on the E. Face. The climbing was grand, really fun, and stimulating! The clouds swirled around us, occasionally gathering enough force to snow and quicken our pace. We summited in a calm moment and enjoyed the views of northern Yosemite's granite landscape.

After another great Little Slide trip, Tim and I are both really stoked to get back, for there is always more to do in this special spot of the world!

West Face Enclosure, Grand Teton, WY

2010-09-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

Alex Stroud and I recently climbed the West Face of the Enclosure, a sub-peak of the Grand Teton, WY. We left the Valhalla traverse soon after the Black Rock and began traversing the West Face.

(Vallhalla Traverse is visible 1000 ft. below Alex)

Soon after a low pressure system moved through the Tetons, we headed to the Lower Saddle which is located at the top of Garnet Canyon. The melt-freeze cycle was in full effect and we enjoyed lots of sun on the hike in. The South-facing rock was completely dry, however, the North and West aspects had become vertical winter playgrounds!

Our rack included a set of Camalots to #2, 1 set of stoppers, 4 express ice screws, two tools, and horizontal front-point crampons. I placed 14 ice screws on the West face.
Amazing mixed climbing on the entire spectrum of frozen water (powder snow, snice, water ice, alpine ice, resident glacier ice) and increasingly higher quality gneiss.

Alex exits an awkward squeeze onto the Enclosure summit ridge.

Cumbre a muerte!

Tetons

2010-09-08T09:30:00.000-07:00

The Teton Range at Sunset

Nice Beaver!

Some invasive plants are best viewed from afar, like this thistle in Lupine Meadows.

Bachar Boulders

2010-08-11T15:17:00.000-07:00

Maximus

After a few days froggin' in the High Sierra, bouldering is the ideal evening activity on the Eastside. Bubble-pocket volcanic tuff is scattered among the dry pine forests around Mammoth. Climbing on the cooled ashen remains from the eruption of the Long Valley Caldera volcano 760,000 years ago is a powerful experience. The explosive energy tap is open, if you feel it...

Hard'n Root, Mt. Conness

2010-08-07T09:23:00.000-07:00

Behold!

Go up

Breakfast of chimps

High above Tuolumne

Warren Harding's 1959 FA bolts, straight balla'

Clip it or whip it

Unleash the OW monkey!!!

Baagaawwk! Tasty Chicken Wing!

Stellar granite on the upper pitches

Cumbre!

Feelin' great

Squamish Season

2010-07-24T00:18:00.001-07:00

Three days is not enough time in Squamish. With the correct tour guides, it's barely enough time to get a good look around.

Rachel and I had a civilized start to the Angel's Crest on the Chief. The tree climb start quickly returned me to childhood memories of monkey business.

The totem pole kept us on track... all smiles. The smiles faded quickly as we navigated treed ledges and steep fixed lines to the base of High Planes Drifter. Squamish served it up all right.

Do all the young men solo for the correct reasons in Canada as they do in the U.S.?

Non-climbing highlights of the trip include: explaining to Phillipe what Putin is (frenchfries and gravy); the Cowboy/girl and Indian party at the Sqauamish Mountain Festival; and getting back into the United States of American without being searched!

Salud to all the Monkeys in Squamish SENDING!

High and Dry

2010-07-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

Don't look directly at IT...
Keebler Needle's always watching

SALUD!
Steven Timothy Dittman

Nimbus Pitch 1
Wheeee!

Launching Nimbus Pitch 2

Splitteron, CA

'Bama Hills
"The Poormans J-Tree"

Definitely watch out for this guy...

The Eastern Sierra may be the greatest rock destination on Planet Earth; pick the season, pick the location, then get yer crush on!
Season: Summer (When its hot, go higher)
Destination: Whitney Portal

Its hot, hi in the hundos, as I cruise the Neil Mobile southward through the searing desert sagebursh on HWY 395 with AC at 9am. Soundtrack is Pink Floyd's "Animals", face melting guitar solos and sharp commentary on humanities social downfall; its LOUD! Im psyched to meet Tim Dittman and explore The Portal's white hot granite.

Day one finds us on Nimbus, an excellent three pitch climb emphasizing slab footwork and stellar crackage. As we begin to notice, slab is quite common here, after climbing 'Tanager' another awkward leaning tight hands crack with exfoliant granito smearing my calves were screaming lactic acid barfies. Call it a day...to The Portal Store for nourishment!

Next, we couldn't pass up Bony Fingers, possibly the most classic route around. Seriously, finger cracks don't get any splitterton. Check out those Diorite knobs!!! A whale of a tale....

Thanks for the photos Timmy; I'm getting a smaller camera for climbing, stay tuned.

Friendlies From Leavenworth to the Tetons

2010-06-25T06:56:00.000-07:00

Jens and Max on the perfect ledge below ROTC crack on the recently opened Midnight Rock.

Ty and Matt sicking me on the Gallatin Canyon's best cracks.

Family Life in the Tetons

Mountain Corn putting the high hemoglobin count to good use in Teton Canyon.

Grand times!

Neil recently started work on the East Side of the Sierra. However, he was able to lead all but two pitches of the Nose before committing to the grind.

The drive down from Washington was augmented with good company and climbing in Montana. The Yellowstone Ecosystem serves it up. The top of the food chain is not humans down here...

New Route "Vegetarian Couloir"

2010-06-07T11:34:00.000-07:00

After a day of snow followed by a day to clean off the snow, Raphael and I set our sights on a route named Bacon and Eggs. Upon correspondence with Eammon, we realized that we climbed a route just right of the aforementioned. The name for the possible new line, "Vegetarian Couloir." The appeal of this route is it's proximity to Kahiltna, BC. We completed our mission in 9 hours camp to camp.

The route enters the mixed looking right facing corner to gain the East Ridge of Begguya.

Begguya.

We enjoyed a classic Alaskan style top out. The unconsolidated snow provided good "swimming" as Raph put it and definately increased the pucker factor and the overall commitment of the route.

Raph on the East Ridge of Begguya (aka Mt. Hunter), known to the natives as Denali's son. Huntington West Face is in the background reminding us of unfinished business.

Check out Raph's blog

Looking down the weakness.

Raphael contemplates the best way around the corniced ridge

Looking toward BC with first light on Sultana, which is Athabaskan for Denali's Wife (Mount Foraker). Sultana is North Americas 6th highest mountain at 17, 400ft.

Ice from the Triassic Period warmed us up for the main event.

The clock starts when one crosses the schrund.

The Moonflower Buttress is the obvious striated granite wall in the center. The Mini-Moonflower climbs the tower just to the left, and the Mini-Mini-Moonflower (aka Bacon and Eggs) is just a little further left.

Rock climbing close to Kahiltna BC. Sam reaches for a chalk bag that doesn't exist.

The Columbian-American Expedition to Little Switzerland was a total success! Andres and I stocked up on calories in Talkeetna, Alaska for a few days before flying onto the Pika Glaciear. We were on the super-chill program.

The hot daytime temperatures and low elevation forced us to adopt the night schedule. Most days we slept in and left camp around 1700. The freezing started just before mid-night or day-end as it should be called in Alaska near the solstice.

The Pika glacier joins the lower Kahiltna glacier around 5,000ft. Water pools in the depressions of the glacier. A reminder of what awaits at the bottom of some crevasses...

Andres shows us how to schralp, Columbian style.

When the snow clears off the face of the North Pillar, there will be good climbing...

Many projects await the adventurous.

The North Pillar of the Crown Jewel is illuminated on the left.

Cumbre ca. midnight... The beauty of 63 degrees North Latitude.

Andres walks the final ridge to the summit of the Throne after simul-soloing

III 5.8 Lost Marsupial.

Peering over the edge with the Royal Tower on the right. The ridge just left of the central cooler weakness is IV 5.10a.

Mixing things up a bit...

We practiced the art of boots into rock shoes on snow!

2010-06-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

(Photo courtesy Mountain Film)

After another great trip to the Black Canyon with Kim Havell, I've been resting and enjoying Telluride's Mountain Film Festival, a incredible four-day event combining adventure and environmental issues.The Sender film boys were in town showing some of their latest; 'Alone on the Wall' made my palms sweat as I watched Honnold re-enact free solos of Moonlight Buttress and Half Dome, awesome footage! This film won the festival's Charlie Fowler Award. 'Man vs Eiger' (AKA Fly or Die) documented Dean's quest to Free-BASE Deep Blue Sea on the Eiger North Face; this guy is a true scientist, experiencing the world in highly acute mental states. On the enviro front, I really enjoyed "I Am", a film documenting a Hollywood producer's journey to shun the false material world and find true meaning in this confusing world. Mountain Film leaves you feeling disturbed and also inspired to change what you can.

http://www.senderfilms.com/
http://www.iamthemovie.net/
http://www.mountainfilm.org/

Check out Kim Havell's site for the Black Canyon Trip Report
www.havelltravels.com/2010/05/tr-black-canyon-classic-days/

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

2010-05-24T10:16:00.000-07:00

The Painted Wall is CO's biggest wall

(furthest left in the photo)

Looking toward some of the Black Canyon classic walls

Jim Turner scoping the Black Canyon

The long routes and remote settings of the Black Canyon makes the place feel like alpine climbing; there are many adventures waiting for the intrepid here. I teamed up with Jim Turner, a Black climber for my first time last week.

After a casual mid-day alpine start we got it together and hiked down the SOB gully to climb Comic Relief (III 5.10 300m), a classic moderate offering. I was feeling insecure on the balancy, weird crack crux after my spring in the Creek, but as the climbing continued I began to relax and ease into the unique rock and movements of the Canyon.

White-throated Swifts swooped within inches as I sat on the belay ledges, contemplating the vast, deep canyon walls swirled with Pegmatite and dark Gneiss. The snow-fed river rages on a thousand feet below; its amazing to consider the pre-dam (1937) runoff levels reaching 6 times the fury! ( at 6000 cfs)

The next morning showed clear skies as we started down the Cruise Gully with the mega-classic Scenic Cruise (V 5.10+ 600m) on the agenda. As it was Jim's third time on the route, I recieved a quick debrief of the upcoming pitch before setting out on my leads, super handy! Just as the sun began to bake our brains at 10am, the clouds rolled in to save the day! The reality of over a thousand feet of exposure set in as I took the sharp end high on the route's big traverse pitch; a techy face sequence was cause for pause, thankfully the original bolt has been replaced by a fatty Metolious!! We topped the Canyon rim around 5pm for a time of 9 hours on this beautiful route. The climbing on the Scenic Cruise is always exciting for leader and the follower, every pitch is classic, and the movement very cerebral with great cracks and wild edging.

The Black Canyon has a powerful allure and a history of training some of America's best climbers. In the late 70's Earl Wiggins soloed the second ascent of The Scenic Cruise in 90 mintues with no chalkbag!!

Dulces para los ojos (eye candy)

2010-05-22T09:09:00.000-07:00

On Friday, May 21, 2010 at 0200 I woke up to multiple alarms and walked down stairs to the freshly made pre-programmed coffee. What would Alpinism be without caffeine?? 20 minutes later I am in Jen’s kitchen imbibing more of the stimulant. How many times have I driven to this trail-head in the dark?

An hour after leaving the car, Jens, Dan, and I turned off our headlamps and look ed at the North Face of Mount Stuart. We all had the same thoughts, “there is a lot of snow on the face and not much ice, powder on slabs.” The large objective was quickly and unanimously ruled out.

It is a good idea to have a small, medium, and large objective when alpine climbing. This way, one can tailor the climbing objective to the weather and conditions. In the clearing below Mount Stuart, we decided to check out our medium objective, the Cotter-Bebie to Serpentine Ridge on Dragontail Peak.

I strongly recommend climbing with the locals whenever possible. Insider beta is often crucial to timing and matching inspiration to proper objectives. In our case, Jens had been keeping a critical eye on the North Faces and ventured out the week before to climb the Triple Direct. Therefore, we were able to correlate the undulation freezing elevation (read: freeze+thaw=ice) and recent weather to determine the location where the highest likely-hood for good mixed climbing would be.

Some M6 above good rock gear...

“If there are any prohibited items in your bag I will have to call the police,” said the Transportation Safety Officer at Sea-Tac International Airport. I quickly ran though the contents in my mind; off-belay knife, ice axes, ice screws, crampons, lots of sunscreen, mate gord and bombilla... all of which are “prohibited”, or look like something that should be. My hypocampus sent signals to release fight or flight response hormones in my adrenal glands. The airport immediately felt hot and I began to perspire as my heart rate increased as well as my breaths per minute.

“Have you ever flown before?” Asked the Officer as he pulled out the TheraCane. “Yeah, my friend suggested I take this bag a la carte and I was planning on checking it...”

When I returned to the Alaska Airline representative to check the bag in question I realized that my boarding pass was Missing In Action. The rep. couldn’t re-print the pass because the flight was leaving in 15 min. I ran back to the TSA people. They wouldn’t let me pass the initial screening to find my boarding pass without a boarding pass. (It is interesting how these negative feedback loops are built into the MATRIX). Ran back to AA rep. AA rep. and I run to TSA gate. Conversing. TSA Supervisor looked for my boarding pass because we are not allowed to pass initial security check-point. Still couldn’t find pass. Ran back to AA desk with nice AA rep named Melanie. SYSTEM OVER-RIDE Finally printed new boarding pass and called ahead to gate to not close doors w/o me. Ran to gate C14. “JOEL!” Yelled the flight attendent. “Yeah.” Just in time.

The gogoinflight internet above the Contiguous United Staters of America (and an hour North of Seattle into BC) gave me a taste of the future, but not enough to get anything accomplished. The remainder of the flight was spent editing photos and recounting our recent adventures.

El tiempo es perfecto in Anchorage...

Joel