Monday, December 19, 2011

BIRD BRAIN BOULEVARD

This season it has been a great so far. tons of ice, the mixed and alpine routes are in great shape!!!
Some days ago I had the opportunity to climb my favorite route in the San Juan's with my sweety.
It was her first time on the route and first one of the season for me.
The route it was as always super fun!!!
This season the lower part of the route have tons of ice and the upper part it is pretty dry making it little different than previous years.

Annie had tons of fun following every pitch in great style!!!!
We make great time on route.
The gear for this route this season is:
Cams 2 sets from .3 to 3 and one #4, pins, half set of stoppers, 4 medium screws, runners and a 70 M rope with a 5 mm tag line.


A nice view of the first pitch.

Anita following the second pitch.
The upper route does not have much ice, but fun climbing anyway.

Anita topping out with a huge smile on her face. Summit shoot what a great times!!!!!!!!!!!

This season it has been a great so far. tons of ice, the mixed and alpine routes are in great shape!!!
Some days ago I had the opportunity to climb my favorite route in the San Juan's with my sweety.
It was her first time on the route and first one of the season for me.
The route it was as always super fun!!!
This season the lower part of the route have tons of ice and the upper part it is pretty dry making it little different than previous years.

Annie had tons of fun following every pitch in great style!!!!
We make great time on route.
The gear for this route this season is:
Cams 2 sets from .3 to 3 and one #4, pins, half set of stoppers, 4 medium screws, runners and a 70 M rope with a 5 mm tag line.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

WINTER IS HERE !!!

It is nice to be back in the San Juan's.
I take a deep breath fell the cool San juan air in to my lungs. Open my eyes I find myself surrounded by an awesome view. My back yard!!! I think to myself, happily, this is the place where I will be hanging out for the next 5 months.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

4 ANNUAL ICE NIGHT

The 4 Annual Ice night at the city rock climbing gym in Colorado Springs it was a great event.
This was my 3rd year going to the event, and every year it getting better and better Lots of climbing gear demos from Petzl, BD, Cassim and Evolve make this event pretty fun.
This year I had the opportunity to give a slide show about my last and most recent expedition to Kyrgyzstan. After the Slide show it was time for the competition The route was super fun, about 20 competitors from all over the country. In the end the podium was 3rd place Andres Marin, 2 place Marc Beverly and the winner of this year was Gordon MacArthur. unfortunately it was a DQ on the comp Sam Elias how did the best of all got a DQ because a touch a wrong hole :) Other than that we all had a great times and I'm totally looking forward for next year.

Thanks to all who did the event happen and for all the spectators!!!!!!



Wednesday, November 9, 2011

AWESOME EXPEDITION

Finally, we are back in the USA after an incredible expedition to Kyrgyzstan. We got to climb two unclimbed peaks as the first American team to reach the Torugart - Too Range. Everything was awesome, the climbing, the people, and the entire experience. I want to thank my partner Phillipe for his great energy. Also, thanks to Mugs Stump and the Mugs Stump Grant for helping us make this expedition possible. Huge thanks to Bluewater, Millet, Petzl, 5.10, Gu, and all our friends and family, you all rock.


Heading to the Denver International Airport, we are super psyched.

In DIA with loads of luggage; camping, climbing (ice & rock) gear, lots of warm clothes and tons of freeze-dried and gu food. All this makes for hefty bags.

It took us two and a half days to arrive in Kyrgyzstan. Once we got there, the real adventure began.

At the market in Bishkek preparing for our expedition, we needed thirty days of food and fuel. Market missions are really cool, colorful, and culturally interactive. They set us up for the mountain experiences to come. It is important to remember everything necessary because there will be no chances to restock.

Road break on the journey from Bishkek to Naryn, five hours of crazy driving.

Dude, which way? With this nuts-o driver!

With our new plans (due to the change of price from our logistical agency) we decided to go to a different mountain range. En-route to the Torugart -Too range we had to stop in Tash Arbat. This is a small yurt village in the mountains. We needed to get beta about the range from a gentleman named Rumenburg and devise a good plan.

Discussing our plans and logistics with the local people. It would take us traveling with four horses in three days to reach base camp.

Free time to hang out and make new friends before leaving the next day.

Time to load up the horses and begin the next part of our adventure.


Horse riding was a unique part of the journey, the landscape was amazing. It was challenging riding in steep and loose terrain.
After our third day of horses, we saw our first views of the range and wild horses, really beautiful country.

Base camp at 3,000 meters. Good spot on dry ground next to a a clear creek.

After a couple days at base camp and a reconisence mission three hours up the valley, we chose this local for our advance base camp, just under 4,000 meters.

Our first objective. The unclimbed (4,800 meter) peak behind me. This mountain is the divide between China and Kyrgyzstan



The climbing started with 500 meters of steep snow, low-angle ice, and mixed climbing that will be taking us to the summit ridge.

The ridge was interesting and a bit sketchy with loose rock and fairly unprotected. This is a photo from the summit which we named in honor of our dear friend Bean Bowers. The celebration of his life was taking place on this day. We miss you brother.

We came down from our first successful mission and got hung up in nine days of poor weather.
When it cleared, and with a good weather window report from Bryan Gilmore (our forecaster from the US) we had a go at our main objective, shown in this photo, the central face of Mustyr Massif.
Our goal was to connect the three faces which are stacked on top of each other. One of the cruxes on the route came quickly in this steep and loose rock section. The protection was marginal. We had to stay focused.

Another crux pitch, an unprotected traverse which Phillipe put a great lead on. The follow was also quite sketch.


Then we hit the ice higher up on the mountain. This allowed us to move a bit quicker.

More ice sections. We are getting higher and higher.
Staying psyched up high!

After 1,300 meters of pure technical climbing we are at the summit. This is only half way, our descent was very complex. We had to cross avalanche terrain and got caught in two slides, which definitely shed light on how much we appreciate our fragile lives.




Advance base camp was hectic and stormy, we found lower ground at base camp. In this image we are unburying base camp.
We waited out the storm. Bryan informed us we had a decent window, followed by a weather system. The next storm cycle came sooner than we had wished, it began to get nasty and we had to descend deciding not to take any more risky chances, since we already got so lucky.

Twenty-three days in these radical mountains, successful and full of lessons, our friends and their horses met us for the return journey.

Reversed the horse ride, reflecting on our experiences and stoked to be alive.

Thanks for all the support! I highly recommend exploring Kyrgyzstan to anyone willing to try something outrageously different. Overall, we had excellent experiences with the people and the mountains.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

WE ARE BACK IN NARYN !!!!!!

We are back in Naryn after espending 20 days in the Toragart-too range.
We had the oportunity to climb 2 unclimbed peaks via awesome routes in the range.
The hole 20 days where full of adventure fill up with scary, peaceful and enjoible moments.
We also had the opportunity to make new friends and see very cool places.
The story and  photos will be post once we make it to the USA. 
The adventures are not over yet.
Thanks to everybody who helps us on our crazy moments. RAKHMAT (thanks)big time!!!!!  

Even writing this posts are totally an expedition. Internet and computers here are pretty wild to find and hard to understand.

We will trying to head back to Bishkek in a day or two.   


    

Thursday, September 1, 2011

WE ARE IN NARYN

After a long drive from Bishkek to Naryn, we are finally are getting some where.
The drive that last 6 hours it was totally terrified. Our driver, a 18 year old crazy dude drove us about 70 to 100 KPH passing other cars in curves and blind sections of the road. I totally thought we will died yesterday buy far the most extreme thing that I have done in my life.
After the drive and once in Naryn we where welcome by the director of the tourist and information center of Naryn.
It was a great help to have somebody who can helps us here. Also we met some peace corps people who are been a great help figuring out very basis things in here like food, places to sty and logistics.
Now are move is figure out where are we going next. There are so many places to go climbing here and some of them have never been explore that it is overwhelmed. So many options it is pretty cool.
We will be hanging out today here and most likely will make a decision on where to go later o today.

JAKSHY KALYNYZ = GOOD BYE :)        

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

CHANGE OF PLANS

As yesterday, everything was going great until some no good news where given to us.
The travel agency comunicated to us that the price for uor expedition will be 3 times more that what we wore toll.
Lot of things got lost in comunication in the past couple of weeks between the germans travel agency and us.!!!!
Know it is basicly about 3,500 Euros per person with out warranty a pick up in the end of our trip !!!
Know we are back to zero in terms of plans and loigistics. The germans have the money so they will keep paying to that agency for lots of unsure things. We are now taking a plan B.
We will heading this afternoon to Naryn via Bus, talk to some contacts and see what we can do.
Our possiblities are : going to the Borkodoy range or the Ab-bashy range. Would see what up.
We will be giving more up dates once we know where we are going.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

WE ARE IN KYRGYZSTAN !!!!!

Finally after a long 2 days of travel we finally are in Bishkek.
Our travel adventure was pretty funny: Everythiung start in Denver when we show up at the DIA with lots and lots of bags. They end up charging us for a extra bag 200 !!!!!! in our rush to get eveything together, we forgot to mark some of the bags. We where super concern since they left with out been mark. In the end eveything work just fine we got all the bags and life is good.
After living Denver, our next stop was LA. It was my first time on that city and for me was pretty mind blowing to see how big and caotic is it. The airport is huge and we find ourselfs running lots in order to get to our gate in time. We had to go to security there too!!!! I got the chance to pass firts I was waiting on Philippe then I saw all the security people running out off the room and screaming to everybody to don't move. My heart almost stop. Hoo man something really wrong is happening I'm outside of the room, but my partner still inside minutes pass and them the head officer thank everybody for been part of a security drill !!!!! I find myself little shaking after the adrenaline rush in my body. After that daventure we where in our way to wait for our plane to take us to Moscow. but firts we had other surprise when we end up running into the bass player of the Red Hot Chilli peppers on a pretty crazy out fit. After that we where in a plain heading to Moscow Russia. The flight was pretty pleasent and long too 12 ours left we where in Moscow Russia where we had to wait 6 hours for our final flight to Bishkek. Been in the airport in Moscow for 6 hours it was like been in a crazy wild human zoo all kinds of people from all over the World heading to everywhere in the World. After some time of waiting it was time for us to take the flight to Bishkek 5 hours later we find ourselfs in the capital of Kyrgyzstan. At this point I wasn't sure waht time and which day it was it's been soo long since I left home that not sure where the time has gone. After going to imigration in Bishkek our diver was waiting for he will take us tyo the hotel where we will be able to rest. In our way there, we realize that our driver it was draving pretty fast and on top of that start falling sleep while driving!!!!! I man this is it for us I was thinking. We start to talk to him an try to keep him awake but the dude was so tired that even with us talking he still keep falling sleep going super fast on the streets of Bishkek. Finally!!!!! We are safe in the door of our hotel where we can relax sleep and get ready to head out in to twon later on and check out the capital. For now is time to rest.

Monday, August 22, 2011

BACK IN COLORADO AND IS TIME TO PACK !!!!!!

Finally, I'm in Colorado and is time for me to start packing for my next adventure.
So many things to pack and not forget, it is kinda of crazy especially for a person who most of the time forgets something.
I have some time here in Grand Junction at my parents house and then I will be heading to Boulder to meet Philippe and do our final packing and then the 27 catch a plain to a country and a continent that I have never been before. Little scare to be honest but super psyched in the same time !!!!!

Once again I want to thank all the friends and family that are helping this dream happen.
Thanks to the Mugs Stump Grant, Millet, Petzl (Chuck Odette), 5.10 Shoes, Blue Water, GU, Ice Holdz. Thanks to my family and sweetie Annie, Clint Cook and the San Juan Mountain Guides, RMI, Brian Gilmore, Chad peele, Dr. Courtney, Mark "Coach" Miller, Steve House, and my homies that lent me stuff. Love you all !!!!!!!

We will be talking with Brian Gilmore via sat phone and he will be providing "GOOD" weather in his awesome forecasting skills :) also he will be up dating this blog. Stay tuned.

Thanks Brian !!!!!!

TRAINING IN THE NORTH CASCADES IN WA.

After a great season in Alaska and in MT Rainier, it is time for me to start training for my coming expedition. I got the opportunity to do some work and personal climbing in the North cascades and leavenworth area. This type of terrain it is a great training for my trip. Very long days alpine rock climbing are the prefect terrain for me to train. In the end I end up logging 109 hours of training in less than two weeks. Between approaching, climbing, Running and doing yoga. They all add up !!!!!

Great views into the enchantments after guiding the Dragon tail. this set up ( approach shoes and crampons) are the best set up for short snow and long rock climbs!!!!!!


A nice look to the Shuksan East face on our way to the fishers chimneys.

After some working trips I got the chance to go and check out some cool routes with my expedition partner Philippe here we got the chance to check out the Tempest wall and the scoop on the colchuk balance rock formation.
What a crazy looking pitch.


After some fun personal climbing it was time for me to go work. I did some work for the North west Mountain School. own by to good friends of mine. Here it is a look of the crux pitch on the Serpentine arete on the dragon tail. 2,000 of fun climbing up to 5.8

The colchuck lake it is a great place to refresh after a long and hot day of great alpine rock climbing.

In my last trip to this area I had the great experience to fire the dragon tail on a day!!!! This trip was a work trip where James AKA "dope on a rope" as he call himself :) and I climb the route in a 13 hours push from car to car. for me , it was like the PERFECT guiding day run the approach, fire the route and run back to the car!!!! I love it !!!!!!!! Thanks for the great Day James you are awesome dude !!!!
Here is how the route goes.

Great times with James. We had super good time all the way up and down.
Now is time for me to start heading South East to Colorado and start getting ready for the big trip.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

4 of July at Index

This past 4 July I had the great pleasure to spend in it climb in Index with some great friends.
This was my second time climbing at that area and I'm totally psyched on it. Great stone awesome routes and very cool people make Index a place to hang out.

Our breakfast by the river with a splitter blue skies and great views, shearing some great moments with friends make for a great times to remember.
In this photo Jake, Gilbert and I. JT on the camera.

After a great breakfast was time to climb. Index it is a hard place to on sight routes the style of the area is very unique and if you are not used to climb there you will get you ass kick.
This route was in the Garden Wall. Is call Know job 5.10d R. Great route little spicy but very cool.

Index is just such a cool place lots off places to hang out.

At night we had the chance to check out fire works and hang out with some locals friends.
Looking forward to go back and do some more rock climbing and maybe some kayaking.!!!!!
Thanks to JT and ThompsonPhotography.com for all the images. Check his work out at his web super cool stuff.

BACK FROM ALASKA

Our expedition to the West Rib in Denali was excellent.
The group was a super strong one with great energy and awesome personalities.
The Group:
Andes, Adam, James, Peter, Courtney.
For most part the weather was great. In our time there we did not encounter any big storms, but the unsettle weather keep us from having a 100% nice weather.
In the end, we end up climbing 2 routes in Denali. The West Rib from 14,000 camp up to 19,000 where we run out time and then after 3 days of resting we did the West Buttress.
It is not common it all for a group to do this in the same expedition, but having that strong a crew keep the options open. Great job Team!!!!!

In our way to 7.800 great day!!!!


We spend a total time of 8 days in 14,000 camp. Cool place to hang.

In our way up to 17,000 here James is cruising above the fixed lines.
Finally after lots of hard work we found ourselves at the Summit.
(sorry for not having a group shoot)
Many thanks for the great expedition. It was a great experience to work with you all !!!!!