FLANIMAL!

Beautiful forecasts for Saturday enticed fools to head to Newlin for a session as a send off for Flan's finger before she undergoes surgery tomorrow.

A sight rarely seen the past few months - Flan putting on climbing shoes - behold:

Broken finger? No problem! Just a little spit, tape, and chalk to hold it together:

Nevertheless, in typical Flan style, she crushed. Everything. Riders on the Storm, Tojo Rising, and the v9? left start to Tojo went in rapid succession.

Just imagine how strong she'll climb in another 3 months when her appendage is healed!

(artists rendition of Flan post-surgery)

photo borrowed from Chuck Fryberger's Flip Off For Flan! Campaign May 2009

BEST OF LUCK FOR A SPEEDY RECOVERY FLAN!

The mind worms are sneaking in...

Marcelo Delovitch once shared his theory on the positive relationship between spending time at work, and the ease of entry for "mindworms" into the brain.

Between the snow on days off, and a schedule of doom in preparation for the holidays, I've not had a lot of climbing time...hence no blog updates. I've got worms friends. BAD.

Thankfully, my weekend off is coming up, and the forecast is looking promising!

Keep your fingers crossed, the mindworm-exterminator is on her way.

Grettings from Newlin Creek!

As I reported, the session was at Newlin this Saturday, but no one reminded the weather not to suck for a few days leading up.

After hiking all the way to the new sector, we learned that 4 inches of snow and seeping holds were to be found on EVERY BOULDER. We resigned ourselves to a chilly picnic of Fiona's homemade banana bread and hung out... But wait... could there be dry boulders elsewhere? YES YES YES!!!!!!!

Atari Arete and surrounding blocs were indeed dry and climbable! Yay! Session Saved!!!

This photo caught Rich and Fiona in some sort of strange warm-up ritual. Weird Eh?

That, or he is issuing the worst wedgie ever to Thomas who is laying on the pads at his feet. He looks guilty. I bet that is the real story.

I believe it was Fiona's first try on this thing and she crushed it. Sending in only a few goes!

Check that GRRRRR face!

We all used Atari as a warm-up before moving on to Geiman In A Blender.

This was a sort of side-project for Rich, and he was able to polish it off. NICE JORB DOOD!!!!11!

Diggs also made some solid goes at it but didn't quite pull it off. IT WILL TOTALLY GO!

Fiona also made some strong efforts, and was wearing a great T-Shirt for pictures. Excellent execution on both counts Fi!

After repeating Geiman, Thomas and I jumped on The Green Iguana.

Thomas sorted out the beta, and I was able to pull through and finish it after him.

Really fun moves, and a little scary at the top. What more could you want out of unexpected extra rounds of bouldering!?!?

We finished the day with Thomas cleaning and working the arete to the left of Iguana. Some interesting power moves off of a large sloper lead to thin holds and a big move for the top. FUN FUN FUN, but it didn't go down that day.

A pretty rad day for what looked like a long hike when we arrived at the new area. Thanks to the usual suspects for showing up and pulling down! You guys rock!

Get Excited

I was going through some older photos from Newlin to generate some PSYCHE for the upcoming weekend....

Just thought it might be nice to share.

I'm really pumped to get out this weekend with any and all foolfaces who care to be in attendance! To those on the Joe's train, have a great time!!!! To those uncommitted either way, COME TO NEWLIN!!! Even if you just hang out, you will still have a great time!

Who Turned Up The Suck???

Newlin.

Newlin apparently has stronger gravity on October 16 than anywhere else on the planet. T.J. and I had the misfortune of learning this first hand.

After battling the warm up boulder in shaky, thrutchy style, we went on to have our asses handed to us the rest of the day.

We both got on and tried old guard, and the thing to the right for quite a while before figuring out workable beta. Then, I was too tired to do it and T.J. had other aims. Double Mild Weak Sauce.

T.J. spent some time with Jaques Cousteau and was getting very close to sticking the big move before tearing holes in his fingers and feeling too sore and non-motivated to try more. We ended up going to Megaladon to try out the moves and got bouted there as well.

This photo pretty much sums it up. Staring at the boulders wondering why they are keeping their secrets today. Maybe getting reacquainted with the holds and style was necessary?

Who knows. The good news is we still had fun and there are plenty of days of Newlin ahead. SENDS COMING SOON!!!!

Precipitation Frustration

The past weekend along the front range was absolute crap as far as weather goes. There was supposed to be a glimmer of hope for Sunday, but it never materialized.

While moving to the springs, I had ample time to consider what the ice-storms and freezing yuck were doing to the boulders. Never even made it to the gym, but got some good exercise lifting boxes. Hoping to check the wall at the sport climbing center tonight.
SIGH.

I'll let you know how it goes. STAY PSYCHED FOR PLASTIC!!!!!!

Curiously WRONG

Exhibit A:

You might have guessed...but there is a story behind the above picture...

It was a Fromunda cheeze factory sort of day at Evans, and JJ's hands were not sticking to the holds. Some discussion of cooling techniques yielded the idea of hands in snow.

Now, how to do that without getting your skin wet? AH HA!!! Put a snowball in a bag and clutch it with your sweaty palms! JJ did this with his usual enthusiasm for all things madness and the scene was just too crazy not to stage a wild picture.

Thank you for being a good sport Jaeger!!!!

So the truth of the matter is that a couple Sundays ago we did a grueling hike up to Evans area B and got on "Curiously Wrong" (my Problem) and "Curiously Strong" (JJ's goal for the day). More fun than hard climbing yielded a great session.

We both sent, and had a great time. The pictures were too good not to share.

You can also find a pretty entertaining video HERE.

Click the link bishes. You know you want to.