If you climb you have most likely heard of Andy Mann! I have had the pleasure to work with Andy in Colorado, New Mexico, and our home state of Idaho! First met Andy when he and my good friend Jon Siegrist were on a road trip and and they stopped at the City of rocks for a few days. Any shot some fantastic pics that trip. We have stayed in touch over the years, and I hounded him till he returned to Idaho.
I got a call from Matt Segal who was chatting with Andy in a Boulder cafe about paying Idaho a visit. They got psyched and we quickly put together a team to visit an area in the Sawtoothes that I have been establishing dubbed “Valley of the Giants”. The team consisted of myself, Matt Segal, Portia Menlove, Olivia Hsu, locals Nate moody, and Steff Carter!
We met up at Red fish lake to take the boat across. You can pay the shuttle to get across, or know some one with a boat! Luckily A family friend took all of us and all our gear across via sale boat! All it cost me was a handle of gin! We spent around five days out there and shot a ton of pics! This was one of the best trips that I have personally ever been on. We climbed some classics, established new ones, caught fish for Portia, hit the granite slides, over all epic!
There are a ton of rocks out there, with plenty of room for more problems! It is certainly worth a visit!
Finally. Got access to a computer with video editing that will accept the HD from my Canon T1i and took advantage of that to the fullest.
The Braxon Lake footage is from the last trip of the season that included Andy Coleman, Matt Slayton, Jared Bernert, Adam Healy and myself. The footage of the City of Rocks is from the end of October on a trip there with Lauren Bell. I have some new Riggins footage as well, and will be getting more on Sunday when I head back up. Kaiya, Lauren, Brian Veseth and I went up on Tuesday and climbed in some great conditions. Brian sent the hardest v4 in Riggins, Timmy the Turtle, Kaiya repeated some stuff and more importantly climbed with no pain in her arm! Lauren worked on Timmy the Turtle, coming awfully close, and put some more effort into the Sharma Arete.
I revisited a couple old projects and checked out a new one. The project to the right of Padhog is REALLY hard. Going to take a lot of effort and a ton of work refining beta and sticking one move that currently feels impossible. I once again tried the link from Sharma Arete into a rail problem that tops out to the left of the Jump Start and suprised myself by falling off the last move! I numbed out, couldn’t close my hand and fell post-crux. A few more tries resulted in a pretty bad dry fire off the crux, and eventually I grew too tired to stick the huge shouldery crux move any more. I am headed up Sunday to try and finish off the 4 year project that Mike McClure and I dubbed “Strawberry Sunset” some years ago. If I can, I will get video of that as well and post it soon.
For now, enjoy the Fall 2011 bouldering from two of Idaho’s finest areas!
I’m taking a short hiatus from Idaho climbing (for the sake of something important, I promise). For those of you who know me this isn’t news. Even though it has been a few weeks, I keep dreaming about waking up in the morning, getting a call from Mike and Kaiya, and next thing I know we’re at the Riggins Boulders. Yes, I’ve been known to complain about the long drives to the City of Rocks or the imperfections of Boise’s local crags. Still, I never really realized how spoiled I was as a climber living in Idaho until I moved back to Oregon; there is so much climbable rock in Idaho.
Lately, as a resident of Portland, I’ve been spending most of my weekends at Smith Rock State Park. Smith will always have a special place in my heart.
Smith is where I learned to lead climb in the Fall of 2008 (check out my sweet gumby knot!).
Climbed my first 5.12 in the Spring of 2011. Photo by Andy Davis
and it’s the place that feels most like home.
Andy Davis on Blue Light Special, Shipwreck Wall. Photo by Kris Taylor
When I left Oregon for Boise, nine months ago, I had just sent Panic Attack and was finally feeling comfortable taking lead falls on some of the notoriously long run-outs (think Heinous Cling). After spending the summer climbing in the Riggins Amphitheater and Maple Canyon, returning to Smith has been a bit intimidating. My first day back was shaky, to say the least, but I managed to send The Flat Earth in two goes. Not too shabby. Given the unusually nice (read dry) weather we’ve been having late in the season, I’ve been able to climb every weekend and plan to do so through the New Year.
Also, a quick congratulations to my friend Tara Reynvaan for sending Kings of Rap 12d. So proud of you! You can watch the video of her send here: http://vimeo.com/33296563
Over Thanksgiving Adam Healy and his pup Leara decided to take a long weekend trip to Bishop. I had only been ther once a couple years back, and Adam is a seasoned veteran to the area! We met up with fellow Asana team mates Dan Beall, Kyle O’Meara, Kevin Jorgeson, Katie Lovlace, And Charlie Barret.
Most of the crew new the area very well, which was nice as an outsider. They new where everything was, and beta for every climb there! We hit many classics and caught a handful on video. This is a short video of our trip, enjoy!
Thought I would start out with some old Idaho vids that I know haven’t been on climb Idaho. This one is me breaking down Beta for a beautiful line at at Dierkes Lake, Twin Falls. I first did this line in 07 ans always return to it! Stellar problem, go try it!
Tammy and I have recently been climbing at a “new” area near Swan we have decided to call The Halverson Bar. I use the quotes because I first bouldered at The Bar about 15 years ago, the area quickly became overlooked due to the massive amounts of problems at Swan Falls proper. Three years ago I heard of a few Kuna and Melba locals rediscovering the place. I wrote it off as my memory of the climbing there was poor quantity and very short problems. Last year the beyond psyched Adam Healy made a trek out there from Swan and re-rediscovered the place. When he went there he found a few more zones and some taller problems, claiming it’s well worth some attention. This year Tammy and I made the trip down from the end of McDermott Rd and re-re-rediscovered the place. While the place is basically an extension to the Swan Falls boulder field, the access is a bit different as well as the whole feel to the place. I know where I’m spending most of my winter days:
Between work and going to school, I have had pretty limited amounts of time to climb outside lately. I have had to adhere to the “search and destroy” method that I learned years ago from a winemaker of all people… I have gotten out here and there to the City of Rocks, Swan Falls and Riggins. Here are a few photos of Russel(l) Long that I took at Swan Falls today. We both had a good day, I sent El Matador, and Russell did Sari Charli, Silver Slab and Pigface.
Over the summer, I was lucky enough to be taken to Braxon Lake by Mike and Tammy McClure who researched and discovered the area in early October of the year before. Braxon Lake, and all of the boulders, sits between 8400 and 9400 feet 7 and 1/2 miles into the Sawtooth Wilderness. Over the course of the summer, dog fights, sprained ankles and tweaked knees, sunburns and 75lb backpacks were pretty much the norm. I was able to make it there 3 times this year, the last being with a great crew from Portland Oregon and Denver Colorado, with Adam Healy, Andy Coleman, Matt Slayton, Jered Bernert, myself and a random dude who stopped into the gym to climb for a day, John Tollefstrud.
We spent 3 full days at Braxon, exploring, scrubbing and establishing some amazing lines.
Below are some images from the days up there, all of which were shot with Jarred Burnharts camera after mine dove into a small pond on the first morning. Enjoy!
I have a ton of video from Braxon, the City of Rocks, Swan and Reynolds Creek and I am putting a video together hopefully this week as I have it off from school…Stay Tuned
