Ready to hit the road again!
6/10/09 - Although I'm sure the whole world knows by now, Joy gave birth at home to our sweet little Selah Claire on April 3rd (Check her blog for more details about that). Now, it's June and we're hitting the road again for our annual summer roadtrip, this time with an additional traveler. Read here for the initial first report and the first count from the road.
Lovers having fun in the mountains.
12/06/08 - I never got around to posting the last updates to our summer roadtrip. We finished things up by visiting Joy's parents in Jackson and spent a bunch of time playing in the beautiful Teton Range. Check out the Jackson page for all of the stories and pictures of our adventures. And, as always, check out Joy's blog for more updates. She's a lot better at posting updates about all of our latest news, including ultrasound pictures of our little one.
Climbing on the East Ridge of Nez Perce with the Grand Teton in the background.
08/08/08 - "The forecast calls for PAIN," said Ray as we prepared for a weekend of climbing in the Tetons. Read about our journey on the East Ridge of Nez Perce. Now, Joy and I are back home in Glenwood Springs getting ready for school and cross country season to begin. We'll have more site updates soon with the last of our summer adventures on the road so check back soon.
Joy climbing in Clark Canyon, CA.
07/31/08 - Yesterday was a beautiful day of rock climbing although we forgot the camera (doh!). Caveat Emptor (Mountain Project description) had been high on my Teton tick list for a while and we enjoyed every minute of it. Meg sand-bagged us into taking a much longer, although flatter approach, adding over an hour to the traditional approach. Still, we rallied on the climb and were up and down in about 4 hours, leaving us enough time to drive back to Jackson, hit the grocery store and make pizzas for Meg and Ray before it was dark. It was another fantastic day together as husband and wife for us on our dreamy summer vacation. Now, if we can just drag ourselves out of the house to play today.
Endless jams on Positive Vibrations.
07/29/08 - Our time in Jackson has been great. Joy and I have had a couple of days of cragging and running while Ray and I made an attempt on the East Ridge of Nez Perce (more on that later). Here's our final updates from our time in California. We spent a couple of days outside Bishop with poor, rainy weather, climbing at Little Egypt. Then, Joy took her nursing exam in Reno before we climbed the ultra-classic Positive Vibrations on the Incredible Hulk (a dream come true for me!). Finally, we spent a couple of days sport cragging on volcanic welded tuff outside Mammoth Lakes at Clark Canyon. After a day of trail running we drove to Jackson, ending our wonderful summer in the Sierras. Now, we're gearing up for more adventures in the beloved Tetons. Check back soon.
L: Young lovers on top of a climb in Clark Canyon. R: Steep and glorious hand jamming on the last pitch of Positive Vibrations on the Incredible Hulk.
07/25/08 - We're in Jackson, Wyoming at Joy's parents, playing in the Tetons. We'll have a full update of the end of our time in the Sierras soon. In the meantime, check out our count from the road #3.
A panoramic view from Laurel Mountain.
07/14/08 - After spending eight nights with family in San Diego we are back in the mountains, playing in the eastern Sierras. Yesterday we started things off with a quick and enjoyable climb of Laurel Mountain. And, don't miss our second count from the road. Stay tuned for more fun and adventure (Joy promises she is finally going to write something about climbing The Nose).
The King Swing on The Nose.
07/04/08 - At long last, my story, and pictures, of climbing The Nose in a day.
On The Lamb in Tuolumne.
07/04/08 - We've been busy playing but here's a long-awaited update. First, we finished things in the Valley with two classics; East Buttress of Middle Cathedral and Nutcracker. From there, we headed to Tuolumne, the upper elevation area of Yosemite. In Tuolumne, we have spent a lot of time climbing but have also gotten some good trail runs in, including a decent day to Waterwheels Falls. Climbing-wise, we've played it pretty mellow, enjoying a lot of afternoons of reading and eating ice cream. We started out with the sweet hand jams of Phobos, got lost on Lamb Dome before thoroughly enjoying Aqua Knobby, climbed the mega-classic Blues Riff, linked up On the Lamb and Oz, were amazed at Blown Away and Bombs Over Tokyo and finished up with a great face climb called, Crying Time Again. If you're a little confused, check out our Yosemite Table of Contents, where we've organized it all into a simple, chronological list. Now, on to San Diego for some ocean time, family, and R & R. Last night it was funny to stop in Bishop and catch a movie where we realized that it was the first time we had been in a town in almost a month (unless you count Lee Vining).
Ahh, what a spread!
07/01/08 - We have been joyously without Internet access for a while now, so we only half-heartedly apologize for the lack of updates. We've been spending time climbing, running and relaxing in Tuoloumne Meadows (a part of Yosemite National Park) for the past week. We'll have some formal updates soon, but in the meantime, check out the first of our Count from the Road.
Mike climbing the Boot Flake pitch on the Nose of El Capitan.
06/21/08 - Yesterday, Steve and I topped out our Nose-in-a-day effort after 14 hours 52 minutes of climbing. It's a big climb and needless to say, we were pretty tired. The girls watched our climb from El Cap Meadows and met us at the bottom with cold beers. I'll make a full report soon. In the meantime, you can see a bit of us on the El Cap Report on Super Topo.
06/19/08 - Joy did it! She's on top of El Capitan via The Nose. Hear a bit more about it here. As for me, I'm resting today for our Nose-in-a-day effort tomorrow. We're going to start early and we hope to do it in 15-18 hours. Don't expect to hear anything from me until Saturday but look at the El Cap report on the SuperTopo forum (just look for ElCap report 6/20/08) and you should get an update on how we're doing (it will probably be posted on Friday evening around 7 P.M., give or take). The El Cap report has some great photos of the girls from each of the days they've climbed as well as a short bit about us on yesterday's report. Check out the 6/19 report and go to Joy's progress page to see the links to the other days.
Steve gets started on the classic Stovelegs Crack during our pratice run on the bottom third of The Nose.
06/18/08 - Today Steve and I made a "practice run" on The Nose. We climbed 11 pitches to Dolt Tower, which is 1/3 of the way up The Nose. We made good time and worked out some kinks. We climbed to Dolt Tower in just over 4 hours and found some places where we could save some valuable time. I took a nice 20-foot whipper low on the route (yee-ha!) but don't worry mom, I'm just fine! (it's why we use ropes). We also got a good look at Joy and Sarah, who are doing great. Check out their progress here. Steve and I now plan to rest tomorrow and then get an early start to try to climb The Nose in a day on Friday. Wish us luck!
Our big wall foursome on Dinner Ledge on Washington Column, across the valley from the always impressive Half Dome.
06/17/08 - Joy is currently climbing the Nose on El Capitan, one of the greatest rock climbs in the world. Check out her progress here.
06/17/08 - Here's the latest from Yosemite. We started out with the Kor-Beck on Middle Cathedral, a fun little outing. Next, we made a two-day climb of Washington Column. Joy climbed with her friend Sarah and did the classic South Face route (don't miss the short movie at the bottom of the page). I climbed with our friend Steve on a route called Skull Queen. Joy then geared up for the Nose with Sarah and started on her birthday, the 15th. Meanwhile, Steve and I have been staying busy and climbing a bunch of fun classics, including a Serenity-Sons linkup, a Royal Arches-Crest Jewel linkup and the Northeast Buttress of Higher Cathredral yesterday, the 16th. It's been fun for Joy to climb with another girl and be on her own. I've been excited to watch her progress every day on the Nose from El Cap Meadows and to chat with her at night on our cell phones.
06/08/08 - Okay, here we go. The Squaw Peak 50 trail race was an adventure and now you can read about it. Enjoy.
06/08/08 - We're on the road once again. We've got a full summer ahead of us with only a few things planned so we'll let the winds take us where they will. Yesterday, we started things with a 50-mile trail race in Provo, Utah, the Squaw Peak 50 (more on that later!). Now, we're headed to Yosemite National Park where we hope to spend the majority of our time in the Valley. Around the 4th of July we're meeting with family for a reunion in San Diego where we'll get some beach time. Then, we'll spend time in the eastern Sierras with a 50-mile race in Tahoe scheduled for July 19th. Before heading home we could find ourselves spending time in the Tetons, Winds, Sawtooths or elsewhere. Stay tuned for all of the latest updates.
04/01/08 - Here's the full report of our annual spring break road trip. We started on Desert Shield, helped with a Rescue in Zion, climbed some classic climbs in Joshua Tree, simul-climbed Cat in the Hat in Red Rocks, had some van misadventures and climbed in Zion again. Fun, fun!
