Went out to Yosemite for my first time for my birthday this year. It was very convenient as I went as part of a company retreat. The company hosting the retreat was not my own, and I was therefore free to do fun things, like go climbing. And so climbing happened.

Last weekend Lachlan and I took off for Lover's Leap. It's up in Strawberry, CA, near South Lake Tahoe. We did four trad climbs, and a little bouldering. We climbed from dawn until dusk. Other than that there was a bottle of bourbon, a camp fire, and macaroni and cheese. A wonderful weekend. Hopefully next time we'll get to climb Bear's Reach.

Jesse and I took a plane down to Long Beach, where Lachlan picked us up and took us to his house for the evening. We then packed up the Westfalia camper and hit the road before dawn. I managed to get a little sleep on the ride, but didn't truly wake up until we hit the park. Finding a site in hidden valley didn't even look good on a Wednesday morning around 9. We happened to see some folks that were packing up and snagged their site. The next four days were filled with our first legitimate trad climbs. We did some very easy routes that allowed us to get the hang of placing some trad protection without feeling like we were too much in danger. I have to say that even an easy climb starts to feel like something formidable when you've got ten pounds of trad gear hanging off of you and no rope hanging down from above. We also got in a number of top ropes, and a bunch of bouldering. We actually got the chance to meet and climb with Todd Gordon. That was really cool, he's a really nice guy, with loads of good stories.

A huge thanks to Christy, Joel, and Lachlan for really pulling this trip together!

Lachlan, Jesse, and I have been gearing up for our first season of trad (traditional) climbing. Lachlan and I both have pretty complete racks at this point. On my own rack I have nine cams, two sets of nuts, and all sorts of other fun little things (slings, runners, beaners, ropes, webbing, and quickdraws). Our first legit multi-pitch climb will likely be the greater spire at Phantom Spires in the South Lake Tahoe area. I'm getting really excited for the day. I've been imaging sitting halfway up the cliff eating the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich ever. (more...)

I've lived in San Francisco for over five years now. Every now and again I get the feeling like I know exactly where everything is. I've found every hole in the wall greasy spoon. I've lost a frisbee in each of the parks. I've sat and chatted for who knows how long with a friend at every hidden vista point. But man, every so often, San Francisco proves me wrong. (more...)

Combining two good things to make them even better. Camping and climbing go together like like bread and cheese. Lachlan and I went up all on our lonesome. Once we got there we began to wonder if other people wanted to come, if we'd even have room for them in the car, let alone their gear. Long story short, I'm thinking about getting a bigger car. Anyway, here are some pictures from the trip to Phantom Spires in South Lake Tahoe.

One again, Jesse, Lauren, Lachlan, and I went to the hills for a day of climbing.

We went climbing down at Goat Rock yesterday. We got up at around 5 to head out. We made it to an outlook just as the sun was peaking up over the hill. There was a super short hike into the climb, and we spent much of our day on it until a ton of people showed up. We were glad we had gotten up early, here are the photos I grabbed on my iPhone. (more...)

This uniqe wall is so close to home, that I would have never expected it. Many places are so glassy you can't even smear on the wall at all. It's in San Francisco. I think I'll leave it at that.