After sending Breakin’ the Law, I faced the kind of dilemma I always dream of: what to do with my remaining two climbing days. I thought something in the 5.14a-range would be a good goal; something I had a good chance to send in the time remaining, but not a sure thing. I spent the night…
On rare occasions I take a short hiatus from thinking about training, writing about training, and training, to actually go rock climbing. Over the New Year’s Holiday the family and I headed west to the warm climes of St. George, Utah for a week of climbing. St George is home to a vast array of…
As implied here, I’m inspired by the climbing career of the legendary Jerry Moffatt. During his prime, Moffatt was the best climber in the world, and he dominated on redpoints, onsights, boulders and competitions. What inspires me most though, was his commitment to hard work and his dedication to training. He was a phenom in his…
Christmas came a week early for me this year. While driving Logan home from downtown Denver to see the impressive light display at City Hall, I received a call from my friend and publisher Jason Haas. The “Proof” of the Rock Climber’s Training Manual had arrived from the printer! The proof is a collection of…
I’m currently reading Greg Crouch’s fascinating book “Enduring Patagonia”. I’ve always had this thought in the back of my mind that when the kids are grown up I’ll go climb Cerro Torre for “fun”. After reading Crouch’s book I now realize the folly of that idea. Crouch spent 68 days trying and failing to climb…
We recently spent a few days in Wyoming to take advantage of the last week of Kate’s maternity leave. Sinks and Wild Iris are among our favorite crags. I can’t ever recall having a bad day at Wild Iris. Even when I get bouted by a project there (which happens often enough), the warmup climbs…
In late 2009, my friend Ben Schmitt bolted a typical-looking Shelf Road face climb at Cactus Cliff. The line climbs a beautiful white wall of limestone, featuring a brutally hard 5-or-so-move crux right in the middle of the wall. When Ben put the hardware in, I was just finishing off the last of Shelf’s (existing)…
Yesterday afternoon I set a new personal best on the Lazy H campus board. I did a max ladder of 1-8-15 (metolius spacing; 4″ o.c.). I realize this is not a super amazing feat, and has been bettered by countless climbers, but its a landmark for me because my board (and therefore my imagination) only has…
I spent the latter half of October working a route in Clear Creek Canyon called “Primetime to Shine”. This is a linkup of two popular Peter Beal 14a’s, “Primeval” and “Shine”. I’m usually not a big fan of linkups but this one is a rare example of a linkup that actually improves on the piece…
It was a long, hot summer on the Colorado Front Range, so after a seemingly interminable climbing drought the family was fired up to head north and check out the latest rage that is Ten Sleep Canyon. We’ve had lousy luck when it comes to Ten Sleep. I first bought the guidebook in the Spring…
The Rock Climber's Training Manual 