smith rocks halloween

today bret and I climbed at smith. went well for him. not so much for me. i did do the watts tots first try today though. which was my proj when i was a kid. it took me a few weekends to send that thing back then. i used to sit in school going over the beta in my head. i thought it was so cool to leave my draws on it, then come back the next weekend. it has been close to 20 years since i have been on it. very satisfying.
the usual skulls and pumpkins were in holds all over many of the routes. pretty classic down here.
hopefully tomorrow will go well.

hirundos evolution

i am a huge fan of the hirundos. petzl has been at the forefront of light sport harnesses since i was a kid. i just got my new orange one. at first i stuck with the green cuz i liked the color better. i felt that the orange one looked too much like that black diamond harness. but when i got my orange hirundos in the mail, it was much brighter than the BD one and really doesnt look anything like it. plus, after a year of whippers on my green one, i figured it was time.
i have worn all 4 evolutions of the hirundos. which the black and purple one was actually called the hirundo. i want them to get a bright blue or neon pink one next.
im at smith right now. just drove down and am in the hub with bret. made it in 6 hours in the truck. man its slow with all the hills. but rad for sure. there was snow on the side of the road over hood, but nothing to worry about. we will see how it goes down here.

happy halloween

the funny thing is, this is exactly what i looked like 20 years ago.
black lycra tights, sportiva kendo's, metolius 3 point tie in specialist harness and metolius leather finger dipper chalkbag. notice the original vertical club tank top as well, none of this remake stuff we are selling the gym ;)and i am on the original panels that made up the 45 from the elliot gym.
those were good days. classic.

this is a first

Ron Goldberg......RIP

one of my best friends on this planet, bennett, had his father taken from him on monday. Ron Goldberg was fighting cancer for quite some time. his battle ended monday morning in his sleep. for years Ron's house was a safe haven for myself and many of bennett's friends. he treated us with respect and always good humor when we were blowing it. Ron you were a friend to me and im glad i was able to spend some time with you this summer before you went. you will be missed by many family and many friend. thank you for being so good to us for all those years. you are appreciated.
RIP holmes.

little si today

rain warriors

today bret and I headed out to little si. it was soaked on friday so our doubts were high. we really didnt think we were going to get much climbing. so we brought a bunch of leaver draws and biners to replace a bunch of stuff that got worn out this summer.
but when we got to the parking lot it was warmish and we got psyched. we got to the wall and it was bone dry on most routes. bret was planning on doing the dr. evil and i wanted to climb 10 pitches. fitness check.
both of these things went as planned. bret did the dr. evil and i was able to do 10 pitches, which i cant remember the last time i had the time out there to do that.
i did, rainy day (12a) for warm up, hydrophobia (12c) for the 2nd, chronic(13b) twice, full californication(13a) twice, psychosematic(12d) twice, then techno(12c) twice and back to back.
this was a great fitness day for me. i have been losing confidence cuz of the weather and not getting outside last weekend. plus climbing in the gym is just depressing cuz i dont feel very strong when i do.
hopefully we will get many more days like this this winter. it really is only going to take getting out there to keep this psyche and check the fitness. good day, good send bret. even though bret doesnt meet the oldguy.com criteria, his send today was still newsworthy. love to see who he has become.