transitioned

The past few weeks seemed to drag out right to the bitter end. It all started with my 26th birthday. Tried to keep things low key. A few good people gathered at Casey Moore's for a quiet dinner. Chris and Garn got me a shake weight. Against my better judgement, I willingly drank too much of every kind of alcohol. Fortunately, I had done a weeks worth of climbing that morning. I fell off he last moves of The Rail 8 times or so.

The Rail

 And did a bunch of other cool problems around the Oak Flat area. The day before I did a problem called Meatsuit.. weird name but it had some fun moves.

meatsuit

The rain came in fast right after I did it and we bailed back to Tempe.

Work went by quickly. 

Then it was off to Joshua Tree for xmas. Not much to write about this trip because I didn't do much. Rode the xtracycle around the park a bit. Put up some sweet christmas lights.

 Cooked a pretty good dinner for GArn Joni and Brian. The cobbler was the biggest one I've made in the small D.O. and it was pretty good. Climbing was kind of gross cause it was really cold and damp.  Nevertheless, I did some slab called Slabmaster in my campsite and I flailed on Scatterbrain a bit.

 Never felt warmed up enough to be trying that. I finally figured out how to do a problem called Chuckawalla. Once i figured out the first move I was able to quickly link in the sit start and did Chuckawalla sit.

Walked around the Outback with Chris and Garn.

garn on upside-down pineapple

chris in the hobbit hole off-width

 That was my high point so I gave up climbing for the trip had some holiday beers and watched Fists of Fury. 

Then it was back to work. Work was good. I got to take care of some really sweet old ladies who I felt actually got better. New Years yielded temps as low as -18 in downtown Flagstaff and the bago was snowed in.. badly. Walked home from work when the Jeep wouldn't start then dug it out since i was already cold and miserable. Pipes were freezing but the jacuzzi worked the whole time. Then the work stretch was over again.

Rolled down to Tempe to hang out for a couple of days before going to Hueco to focus on climbing for a few weeks. Plans changed again and things settled on Hueco until mid February when I go to Flagstaff to work and housesit. Posted the bago up at Angelas house and rolled around d.t. tempe on the xtracycle. Dry River Yacht Club played at the Yucca but we only caught 2.5 songs. Luckily they are playing again Friday.

Today. Today was a good day. It was the first day I've gotten to climb in 2011 and I did The Rail. Finally, tried something totally different at the end and it made the last move quite manageable. After the 4th try I felt really weak in the hard moves. Then after 10 failed attempts at the hardest move I changed my shoes did the move and finished the problem. I'm fully on the road now living in the Bago with the Xtracycle. Sold the 4runner to simplify things and I feel pretty good. I'm leaving Tempe early Sunday morning and will be climbing in Hueco Tanks on monday. Next blogpost should be mid Hueco trip. There's a rumour of Garn wanting to see what it's like to drive the Bago down to Potrero Chico for a few days. We'll have to see what shakes down.