Building a home is no easy task.  You have to decide the perfect location for the house, outhouse, shed and mother-in-laws lodging, hiring contractors, getting bank loans, and making sure everything goes to plan.  Along with all this comes the stress of the added financial responsibility and dealing with possible annoying neighbors.  I have decided [continue reading]

A little fun in the climbing gym…

Too Much Chalk from Climbing House on Vimeo.

After three weeks somewhere, it begins to feel like home.  The faces are familiar, and we have a routine: sun, wake, coffee, friends, walk to crag, climb, walk back, smile, cook, sleep.  I’m back in Boulder, in the loving arms of my girlfriend Amy.  She asked what I missed when I was in Mexico, and [continue reading]

In two days Boulder has gone from months of miserable, snowy cold wetness to blue skies, sunny and pleasant.  Work has been busy, but I knew that staying in the office today and pulling on more plastic tonight would have given me a case of cabin fever that even my nightly tablespoon of habañero seeds [continue reading]

While home over the holidays I talked with Chris Rolling about our projects for the coming year.  Anytime I’m with a friend and climbing partner, discussion of our aspirations for routes, areas and life is uplifting and motivating.  I will never climb the vast majority of the routes brought up in these conversations, but a [continue reading]

We’re linking pitches to cover ground quickly.  The sun is strong now; we need to get to the pool as soon as possible.  I climb 200′ to Andrew, pause for a moment, and shoot off again, covering 400 vertical feet in a few hot minutes.  The black rubber of my shoes is scorching in the [continue reading]

I woke up to that familiar, painful feeling of waiting all night to pee.  Water drops lay on the tent fly, visible from the inside.  A light rain fell last night, unnoticeable in a deep sleep.  The wind is still sleeping as I walk to the bathroom, then the kitchen.  I eat dry cereal, drink [continue reading]

We woke up to a thickening layer of low, white clouds. After a bowl of Zucaritas con Tigre Toni (frosted flakes) and some instant coffee, we packed up and headed into the canyon, unsure what we’d find. The clouds lifted, and we climbed 2 separate 2 pitch routes up freestanding limestone spires(1,2).
We simul-rappelled, then hiked [continue reading]