Joy

So, I did not post for almost an entire year and between three weeks of silence Kevin is clamoring for more, Becky and Shannon are giving me shit, pretending not to know who I even am. As if anyone could forget a 6'4 spas whose nickname is the ZEBRA!

Well, a lot has gone down in the last couple of weeks. The Giants are playing like the Giants of old, BADLY!! I have purchased a dream, yes you can do that apparently, god bless a America! A van that is slowly taking steps forward to becoming my ideal road-trip vehicle. The main reason I got it, of course, was to avoid being yelled at by Kevin for making a mess in his trailer. School has started again and I am soooo excited about my new class, iWorld.

However, these only serve to distract me from my elbow. Which at the moment is starting to feel better and slowly recover from its tendonitis. To say it was a setback would be an understatement. I was so psyched to be climbing, training, and seeing friends again. I really was starting to feel strong and even confident, but it was a little too much too quick. The good news is I have started to climb lightly again without much pain. I even had a chance to go climbing again with Vicki and Julie, showing them around some areas they had yet to checkout. Although, I was only hanging out and acting as tour guide. I was overwhelmed by Vicki on one particular problem, where upon reaching the top she expressed such joy. In that moment I wanted to be her. She was feeling what I think all climbers look for, the euphoric feeling of accomplishment.

Here is that moment...

Joy: A short climbing film from Zebra on Vimeo.

A Dead Mosquito is a Good Mosquito

Did a little climbing this week with Justin up in at the pass on highway 88. We had hoped to time our sessions with the cool temps of sunset, but we failed to take into consideration the booming population of mosquitoes. Needless to say we ‘bugged-out’ earlier than expected.

However, we did get to sample and see new areas (at least to us) up in the Tahoe area. The Crater Lake boulder is amazing rock. Lactose Intolerance: a fantastic line going up the center of the perfect face. The next evening was spent right off the road at three new problems. Gideon: awesome, slightly overhanging face, to a taller top-out both has a sit and a stand, and allows for awesome climbing either way. Denny’s: a short, but amazing compression problem on the opposite side of the road has amazing rock and really cool moves! Justin also did the line behind Denny’s that was cleaned by Noah Kaufman and was said to be a project on a June 8^th blog post, TryHardClimbers.blogspot.com.

Needless to say it was awesome climbing and hanging with my good friend Justin and our dogs Turtle and Gus. But the uninvited mosquitoes truly did put a damper on the trip. Those of you headed to Tahoe make sure to take a bath in DEET before heading up anytime soon.

Back From the Edge of the Earth

First off. I am alive. I have not fallen of the edge of the earth. I have just been laying low and tending to things that I have been neglecting for some time. I have taken my recent hiatus from climbing as an opportunity to reflect on what I really love about the ultimately silly endeavor of trying to wrestle boulders: friends, the challenge, and the exploring. The funny thing is the one thing I could not get away from was being consumed by climbing, thinking about, dreaming about, scanning climbing porn site after climbing porn site, watching videos, and trying to follow others' great accomplishments. So thank you to those that helped to keep me psyched!

Here is my first attempt at a climbing film with some good friends of mine!

Tahoe Bouldering from Peter Newman on Vimeo.