Summer Photos and Captions

We've been so busy this Summer that I've gotten behind on the blog.  Summer's been wonderful so far!  The photos tell the story best, so I won't write too much.  Since the last post, we met my family for a week long vacation in Jackson, we've spent a couple days sport climbing with Ben, Ange, Devlin and Ana, we're still developing at the Rock Shop, and Davin showed me some bouldering that I hadn't seen yet in the Northern Winds.  

Momma and baby moose in the Tetons.  My Mom had never seen a wild Moose before.

               

Then the sun rose.

We competed in the bouldering leg of the Outerlocal games in Jackson.  Ashley won the Women's Division and I came in 6th place in the Men's.  The route setting was really well done!  I think Micah Rush and Jonathan Siegrist set the majority of the problems, and they did a great job.

 Ben Sears flashing "Wind and Rattlesnakes."

 Nice work!

 We rented a canoe for a full family trip to Boulder Island in the Tetons.

 My dad rowing back to shuttle more of the family across.

 One anchor on the big boulder offers three great toprope variations from 5.11a to about 5.11c.  Nice enough climbs that you'll want to do laps.  It's worth renting a canoe for.

Rowing back down String Lake.

 Wildflowers at Wild Iris.
 Ashley surprised me with a tandem paraglide flight.

 She knew that I had always wanted to try it, and it was so much fun.

 Now I'm planning to take a course someday.

 Indian paintbrush taken in the Tetons, and I didn't enhance or saturate the shot at all.

 We had great weather for a couple pitches at Fossil Hill with Ana and Devlin one evening.  A storm missed us but made a rainbow while I was climbing "Casual Entertainment."  We couldn't get to the camera.

Later I got a couple shots that I like of Ana climbing "Space Needle."

 Sierra's climbing has been improving rapidly.  Here she is climbing to the eye on "My Mind's Eye" at the Rock Shop.

We let Sierra try this line first, and she flashed it.  I think it's a first ascent.  She named it
"Slippery Truth."  Such a perfect problem name.  I'm so proud!

Alex is back from Europe and it's great to see that he's working on lines at the Rock Shop again.  We met him one evening, and Ashley managed to get the first ascents of two projects that we'd spent a couple days on.

She surprised me by getting the first ascent of what I considered to be my project "To the Pain" V6.

 She was happy to snake my proj.

 I repeated it using a dynamic move to the top after a few more tries.

Then we went up to the Touch of Grey wall.

 Ashley got the first ascent of "Two Snakes Traverse" V5/6.  It shares the start and crux of "Touch of Grey" but traverses to a low top out, out right, rather than climbing up the wall.

 On our way back from Jackson we stopped at Blacktail Butte.  Ashley repeated the "Hand Traverse."

 And I finally managed to send it as well.

 I've never seen so much infrastructure for the preservation of a single problem's landing.  But I'm glad that it's there.

 A Monument Plant at Wild Iris.

 A sign at the trailhead in the the Northern Winds.

Davin showed me a very interesting talus field in the Northern Winds.  He's been bouldering up there for many years.  The place has a wild and ancient ambience.

Davin on top of the area warm up.

 Davin sticking to the very small crimps of a difficult project.

 The project.

 Davin was very generous, and went out of his way to let me get a high quality first ascent.  After we both worked out the individual moves, he let me try it a few times until I completed it.  Then he jumped on and did it on his first full send attempt.

 "The Anvil" V7.  A three star classic.

I think Roo feels the same way about Summer as I do.

And now it's time for the International Climbers' Festival!  Hopefully I'll see you there.