I was fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to climb with legend Dan Goodwin, or SpiderDan. Many of you may have seen his climbs of some of the tallest skyscrapers in the country but Dan has done a lot more than that. Dan hosted the first sport climbing competition in the states in 1988. Then he set out on a mission to expose the weaknesses of our nations skyscrapers after witnessing the MGM fire. He survived Stage 4 cancer and has gone on to become a motivational speaker. All around a great guy.

Hueco

We got the pictures back from the one hour photo today and they looked pretty neat. They are the pictures of me at El Techo de los Tres B. It was a great day and a lot of fun. Hopefully the send will go down soon.

Es Pontas

Well, it looks as if I never even updated on my trip to Spain. I went and climbed in Mallorca and it was amazing. I got on Chris Sharma's line, Es Pontas and I have to say that it is very hard. Just getting out of the water is tiring. Then you fall off and have to fight the ocean current and jellyfish. All in all, it was a great time though. I wanted to get to the dyno but no luck.  I made it about to the move before it.

If you have watched King Lines, you know the part where they mention the jellyfish...well, they are infact pretty brutal. We didn't really get a picture of me climbing but you can see me standing at the bottom of the arch.

A little lacking

I have decided that my blog needs more content. Therefore, I have decided to post more of my pictures, as well as take my camera out with me more. This weekend at Hueco was a little bit of a fail only in that Alex's camera died on the third picture. We did snap some photos with a disposable though and we'll see how they came out. I may post them later tonight. Here are a few from the archives.

Back in the USA

So, I have been in the states again for about a month now. I have been to Hueco three times, to the gym about 4 days a week, and competed in a comp. I created a climbing team at Fort Bliss and should be hired at the Soldier Activity Center pretty soon. I got to climb with famous sport climber, Dan Goodwin, aka Spiderdan (the guy who climbs all the buildings) and I am very close to sending El Techo de los Tres B V11/12 out at Hueco. All I need to do is piece it together. I think that pretty much sums it up. I really want to compete in the 2020 olympics; the first year for climbing to be entered. Therefore, I have been training really hard. I hope to be solidly at V11 by the end of the year.

In Afghanistan

For those of you that keep up with my non-climbing life, I am currently in Afghanistan. I clearly am not climbing (not that there aren't rocks) but I am doing a good bit on the hang board. I have my shoes and a hangboard put up in the Tactical Operations Center, or the TOC. I am to 90 degrees on a one arm pull-up, which is a big step up from not being able to lock-off when I first got here. I will keep you guys updated and will put up some pictures of my set up once I get a chance.

I'm Lame

Well, I haven't been keeping up on my climbing in a while but I have been going to PT more regularly now that it is in the morning. That should get me in better shape. Too bad it is now too hot for Hueco. That's ok. I will have a surprise for all of you soon. (I say that as if someone actually reads this.)

Training Again

I finally went to the store and bought some 6" PVC pipe to work on my sloper strength. I attached it to my pull-up bar and can campus up to the rail above it. Not a bad system. I have to set it up in the front door to make it work but that is alright. If I do it that way there is a railing for me to put my feet up on and do targeting workouts. Hopefully I'll get stronger. I'm wanting to go out to Hueco tomorrow but we'll see. It may be too crowded seeing as it's spring break for a lot of people. Just for fun here is an old pic of me at Hostility Boulders on Nerve Damage - V10

Hueco with the Baylor guys.

So, Alex is in Ecuador doing POYi which is the Photo of the Year competition. She is helping to facilitate the competition and most importantly making good connections with people in the photo world. While she was gone I had a few chances to go out and climb with some guys from Baylor. It was a lot of fun and I ended up getting a few new V7s and got really close on some V10s. We'll see how everything goes down but today I am really sore and tired. I'll train tomorrow and wed and see how climbing goes this weekend. Here are some pics from this last week. Also I put up a video of "Be Flat - V4" on youtube if you want to check it out.


Here I am on "Schadenfraud" A really fun V5 in the bottom of Martini Cave


Here is a one finger snag on "Be Flat" as I was trying out different beta for Landon.

Rock Rodeo.

So, this past weekend was the Hueco Rock Rodeo. Big names and big brands alike were there. Of course, as always Five Ten was there with a shop set up to loan out tester shoes. Daniel Woods was there as well pulling in a first place win. I climbed harder than I thought but most of their problems were really obscure, not to mention I went with Fort Bliss MWR, and their idea of fun would probably not have been to watch me on a bunch of 7s and 8s. I managed to pull a V8 on warm up roof, but mostly ticked a bunch of 5s. I did all the moves in Better Eat Your Wheaties, so that should hopefully go soon. It's good to be back in the groove of things and climbing hard again. Hopefully Alex will get some pics up soon and I'll put in a link.