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Finally got up to the boulders that Jeff Smith has been raving about for years now. Only a short drive from Boise, a 5.3 mile hike and you’re there. Jeff and I went up for Saturday and I shot some photos of almost everything we tried. I sent the Prow, a MM problem that is one of the best I have been on since the Flame in Hueco. Jeff did a new line on a small boulder in the main area, no name or grade yet, I sent a problem near the Prow that is really good, in the 5-7 range, big moves and fairly good holds.

The first is Jeff on Camouflage, the second is Jeff on an unnamed ridiculously hard compression problem that neither of us could really even hold body positions. The last two are me on the compression line in the act of trying to do the first move, and Jeff on a new line he almost did on the boulder just uphill from there. Headed back next weekend to try some established stuff and find some new and amazing lines to try. We think the talus goes all the way up and over the ridge, and if it does….

Beau Stuart and I recently ventured north to Salmon, Idaho to check out some boulders that Nate Moody has been raving about. The temps were in the mid to high 90s all week so bouldering during the day was not an option. The approach to the boulders isn’t that long of a hike (if you have 4-wheel-drive), the rock quality is primo, and the boulders seem to go on for miles. Basically what I’m saying is that YOU should go check these awesome granite boulders out… You might want to wait until the fall though.

Beau, Nate and I decided to go to Redfish for the day, rather than wait out the heat in Salmon. Here’s a few shots of Beau climbing on the boulders by the Point Campground.

Now that Mike and Kaiya have moved back to Idaho, I am going to start featuring their blog again. Here is their first post from a few weeks back:

Been a while since the last post, the past couple of months have been pretty hectic and didn’t involve a lot of climbing. Mostly moving from SLC to Boise, Idaho to prepare for the fall semester and hopefully do some new alpine exploration in my home state!

Moving from Salt Lake because I wanted to go to Font in the spring, do a lot of climbing in the fall and winter would have pushed my graduation back at U of Utah another 2 years, in Boise I can finish in 3 semesters and then take off and go climbing with an actual sense of freedom.

On the climbing front, Kaiya, me and the McClures made it up to the McCall scree after a near death experience with a whitetail deer for a couple of days of cleaning boulders and climbing. Many problems were sent, some amazing, some not so great but still good, with the best and hardest not even attempted since we were all wasted and way too low on skin to try anything else. Photos and soon to be video at climbidaho.com, the excellent website of Mr. McClure.

Kaiya has been sidelined with a stress fracture in her left middle knuckle, so she has been taking time off and doing Crossfit workouts, a killer workout program that has a different workout every day, and periodical rest days as well. She came up to check out some boulders on Highway 55 with myself, Adam Healy and Morty on the 4th of July. Couldn’t think of a better way to be independent!

We found some amazing stuff, one boulder in a creek that will be host to 3 great problems, two of them being pretty damn tall and scary. Adam found a beautiful line of slopers one would expect to seen in Font or the southeast, and we worked on it for quite some time. I managed to stick all but the first and last move, the first being due to some needed removal of more dirt from the landing, the last because of…uuuhhhhh. Not strong enough on it. Anyways, here are some photos from the day, I am psyched to head back up there and try the thing again in cooler temps and with stronger muscles

I have been in France for a little over two weeks and thought it was time to post some pictures. It has been a Hampi, India reunion for me. I was greeted at the Fontainebleau train station by Otso and Oyvind two climbers I met in India. Two other Hampi friends, Paula and Jacob, joined us for about a week. Right now I am hanging out and climbing with Otso who leaves in a few days. The climbing has been good, a bit rainy last week, but the rock dries fast. The climbing in Font is hard. Ever hold is open handed and friction dependent. It is intense on the back, core and shoulders, but really fun. Well don’t have the motivation to write anymore so hopefully the pictures will tell the story for me this time.
-Conrad

Train Station

Otso on Beatlejuice V7

Unknown classic total font style

Stephan on a V6 ish arete

Expresso in the morning

Otso on Diversion V7/8

Oyvind On Excalibur V7

Here is the latest vid from Steff working on her project, Catalysis:

Catalysis: Day 4 from steffcarter on Vimeo.

Two videos my buddy Ben Cummings made of a bunch of classic climbs in Hampi.

Part 1

Part 2

As time began to run short for me in India my friend Otso suggested one more trip to Badami. I felt I had a very successful trip in Hampi, sending all but a few projects, so I agreed to go. Our crew was smaller this time comprised of Otso, Camilla, Kaare, Autumn, Dean, Tom and I. We said our goodbyes in Hampi and made our way to the local bus station to catch our bus, which we opted to take instead of the taxi. Tom, Dean and I were on top of the bus trying to secure our crash pads as the bus started to leave the station. The last thing I heard was Dean yell “This isn’t safe!” as they bail off the top and climb aboard. Knowing the road conditions and the way these buses drive I knew our crash pads were as good as lost if I didn’t tie them down, so i hunkered down and tried to speed up the process while yelling at the bus to stop. Not wanted to endure a couple hours on top of the roof, I quickly finished, jumped off and hopped aboard the moving bus. My knots lucky held and we arrive in Badami just as it got dark with all the crashpads still aboard. We celebrated our safe journey with delicious Indian Thali’s, a common Indian meal with three different curries, rice, curd and roti bread with a dessert all for a little over a dollar, and of course Kingfisher beer.

Having spent more time in India since my last Badami trip I was able to relax and enjoy this trip more than the first one, despite the noise, filth and general chaotic vibe of India. I was also prepared for the kids, this trip. At the first sound of “school pen” I would turn and with wide eyes and a big goofy grin and go chasing after the kids yelling “school pen!” in my best witches voice. This usually did the trick either making them laugh or shocked them enough to not ask for anything else. The climbing was amazing, hopefully these pictures do this place justice.

Its funny, being in India I got to experience so many new things and my trip is full of little moments which I think back to and are so grateful to have been apart of. One of those moments happened during our last day in Badami. Otso and I had been climbing at an area bordering a small dirt path. We were told by the many kids that walked by with there cricket bats that it was a holiday and there was no school. Soon we found ourselves surrounded by close to twenty boys. I pulled the whole school pen routine chases them, tugging at there shirts, which they found very funny and the begging stopped. They watched us climb, helped spot and cheered when we sent. During our breaks they would climb atop the boulders and dare each other to jump off onto the crash pad. Otso showed them how it was done and soon the boys were taking turns jumping onto my pad as I took pictures. The heat was setting in so we started to pack up. The kids saw this and told us to come play cricket with them. We agreed and followed them to a flat sandy field where fifty some boys where playing a couple games of cricket. As I sat my pad down I was swarmed by kids all fighting over a place to sit on it. Otso and I would take turns bowling for the kids, all of which wanted a turn to hit a ball bowled from a westerner. Some of the older boys would stand next to me critiquing my bowling technique yelling, “wide, wide!” or “Good bowling!” when I managed to hit a wicket. I was soon offered a turn at bat and the kids took turns bowling for me, laughing when I missed and cheering when I made a good hit. The cricket soon turned to play fighting and typical boy shenanigans. I sat down and watched as the boys practiced there long jumping in the sand and laughed as one boy would drag his frightened friends up to me and tell me to wrestle or kick-box them. Rarely have I found anyone to be this friendly and open to strangers, but my time in India was filled with encounter like this, which I feel very fortunate to have experienced.

Otso on Badami Two Tap

Me on a unnamed 5.12ish climb. Photo Kaare Iverson

Camilla on an unnamed Classic

Otso on possibly the second ascent of Marble Rye.

More boys of Badami.

Official Asana pad testers. Apparently jumping down is more fun than climbing up.

The Badami round two crew enjoying a kingfisher.

So the “potatards” were out in full force the last few days at Castle Rock. On Friday, Mike, Tammy, Kaiya and I walked through a blizzard to get to the Taco Cave. For those of you who have had the privilege of climbing at Castle, the snow was coming down so hard that from the parking lot, the Comp Wall was invisible through the sheets of snow.

Turned out to be a rewarding trip of postholing the mile up to the cave. I managed a third go send of the Smell of Africa, and then was pleasantly suprised when I did all of the moves of Columbian Bowtie, a Anthony Txertudi problem that I couldn’t grunt out a single move on the year before.

Tammy and Kaiya started the day working the Smell, a fantastic problem that has it all; burly opening moves that lead to a tall, spicy and committing topout. Tammy has continued to crush since her return from the trip to the south, looking like she has been able to blend the power and technique better than ever, resulting in making moves look incredibly easy.

Three days later, we were headed back with hopes of better weather, only to be greeted with more snow and a brisk wind that chilled to the bones. The hike up warmed up the body, but warming up the climbing muscles and the fingers proved to be difficult. I had high hopes of sending Columbian Bowtie, but after three tries of falling trying to do a finger pullup with my right hand and once falling off the jug, regression began. Mike McClure urged me to try Jared’s Roof Right, a cool little problem that I ended up sending first go. It climbs the bottom of JR, and then busts out right to a full on mantle at the lip. Cool problem that felt good to send something that day.

The highlight of the trip was by far Tammy’s send of Jared’s Roof stand. She had worked it for much of last season, scared of the potential death fall at the topout (haha), but after pressing out the mantle a couple of times, Tammy took a short rest and then walked the problem. Look for the video soon on Climbidaho. Congrats to Tammy, nice work!!

Kaiya found another cool problem to send the next trip: Tacos for Two. She came off the last move on her best go of the day, and like me, began the regression period shortly thereafter.

Next go for sure…

Well folks I am back in the states trying to get over a post India sickness. I will continue to post stories, pictures and hopefully a few videos of my India trip in the next few weeks. Enjoy.

I first heard of Badami while climbing in Hampi. I was told it was home to amazing sandstone cliffs and boulders, so when my friend Chris Welden, a Canadian squamite, told me he was planning a trip there I was very keen to join. Badami, the erstwhile capital of the Chalukya empire, located in northern part of the India state of Karnataka lies between 100 and 200 kilometers from hampi. One of our faithful taxi drivers named “Funky” told us it was a 3 to 4 hour drive. This 3 hour drive slowly turned into a 6 hour drive, which was expected because driving anywhere in India is an extremely time consuming task. The tiny pot hole ridden roads make travel slow, massive traffic jams common and reckless driving apparently necessary. We were a two taxi van convoy each pack to the brim with three Indian drivers and eight climbers. I was seated in one of the vans, back up against the drivers seat looking out the back window. I would judge the level of danger I was in by the looks on Oyvind, Eirik and Jakobs faces, who were unlucky enough to see the oncoming traffic. There faces would go from nervous to anxious to scared to terrified, they would than close there eyes and flinch just as the taxi would swerve out of the passing lane narrowly missing one of the many oncoming giant buses or trucks, with there unbelievable loud horns. Each town we would go through the drivers would yell something and as our taxis would inevitably stop at a traffic jam curious Indian onlookers would swarm the van yelling “Your country!?” “Your name!?” “Schoolpen!?” “Rupee!?” “Biscuit!?”. As the taxi would finally start driving again the children would chase after it yelling and screaming.

As dusk encroached we were welcomed to the site of sandstone cliffs and the dirty, noisy city of Badami. Just as the idea of dinner, beer and bed started to creep into my mind our chief negotiator Chico, a fluent Hindi speaker, Chris and Kevin or Beefcake came back from their hotel search and told us there were no rooms due to a Holiday. Since bed was no longer viable we opted for the dinner and beer. Over a cold kingfisher our luck changed. Chris had gone back to one hotel with a single empty room to see if it would be possible to fit all 16 of us into it for a night. While at the hotel the manager offered up their vacant group hall, used for weddings and parties, and the one empty room. We took it.

After a morning of chai and Masala Dosa, a potato and curry filled crape, we headed for the rocks. The rock in Badami is not as extensive as hampi, nothing is, but it is sandstone and it produces amazing, steep, thuggy climbs. The beautiful red swirled, marble rye breadsque rock, was a welcomed change from hampi and we spent the first day wondering the sandstone corridors and cliffs searching for boulders and the climbing gems of the area.

I quickly began to realize what an oasis Hampi and Goan’s Corner was. Badami was much more like the real India I had heard of. Every day we would walk through slums and pass wild pig infested open sewers, trash piles and the occasional drunk passed out Indian man face down in the dirt on the side of the road. The biggest challenge was the kids. One morning on the way to the rocks we past through a Muslim slum. We were swarmed upon by 20 to 30 kids at first asking us our name and country. Then they started tugging at my hands asking for school pens, rupees, chocolate and biscuits; this was quite the experience. As we reached the edge of the town and started to walk up into the hills a few of the kids, obviously angry that they did not get anything from us, began throwing rocks. Before we could do much a parent appeared and the kids scattered. This was not the last of our experiences with the badami kids. Every day at least a few of them would find us hiding in the rocks and spend a few hours with us watching our every move. They started off begging, which worked at first. Hoping they would stop someone in our group would eventually give them a biscuit or empty water bottle or a bit of climbing tape. It quickly became apparent that this made the begging worse. Although this was frustrating I couldn’t help but be sympathetic to them, for if I was in there situation I would do the same thing. After the kids realized they had gotten all they could out of us they began to act like kids. It was fun to watch them roughhouse with each other on our crashpads or try their hand at climbing with our over sized climbing shoes and chalk. We spent three nights in badami and then took the taxis back to Hampi where we spent new years, but I would return right before I left India. Badami round two soon to come.

Kids of Badami with Beefcake

Chris on an unnamed ungraded roof problem

The Monkeys showing us how it was done.

Otso on an unnamed ungraded roof problem

Colorful schoolgirls at the caves of Badami. Amazing temples carved out of the cliff face.

Otso on another unnamed ungraded gem

Beefcake enjoying the cramped six hour taxi ride back to Hampi.

Itching to get outside climbing since we got to Salt Lake, Kaiya and I managed to get up to Castle Rock to meet Tammy and Mike McClure and their friend from Boise Nate Moody. I had met Nate at Swan Falls a couple of years ago so it was nice to see him again and climb with some good, fun people for the day in one of the coolest most beautiful places I have ever bouldered.

Post-holing through two feet of snow all the way up to the Taco Cave kinda dashed any ideas of making it up to the Green Wall, but turns out everyone was psyched on something in the cave. Start with the Martini Roof, remove the dabbage potential, add way more independent lines and many, much cooler holds (not to mention ALL of the problems top out and don’t end on an adjacent pebble) and you have the Taco Cave. Amazing.

Kaiya and I had been here in September at the beginning of the road trip, Kaiya had sent a couple of things, and I had struggled to send anything due to being out of shape from lack of climbing for three months.

Kaiya has had a slight style change in her climbing since the beginning of the trip, here she is on Jared’s Roof Stand.

Ever the steep climbing enthusiast, Tammy has Jared’s Roof broken into two parts and had four or five really good redpoint goes, sticking the first and hardest move like 8 times. Move three pulled casually here by Tammy McClure.

In his first stop in the Taco Cave, Nate Moody was really psyched, coming oh so close to sending Jared’s Roof Stand, and making some really good links on the Smell.

Mike has been working Warpath, the huge linkup, for a few seasons now, and he thinks this spring might be the time. Having been here a lot over the last year and a half, I think he looks stronger on all the moves than ever. Jared’s Roof Sit, the second section crux, and the big cross move before the lowest percentage move ever on Out of Africa.