As promised, here are a few highlights from Squamish, Goldbar, and Index. Unfotunately, I only got 3 problems from Squamish on video since light in the forest was extremely scarce. Well, enjoy anyway! Sorry for the errant rope in the last shot!

- MZ -

Hi Guyz. Well, the adventure has been in full swing for a few months now. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s been the happs:

-NYC: Setting for the EMS Pro in New York City was fucking rad. It was my first time setting for a UBC event and we were lucky enough to have one of the most chill comp weeks ever. Since finals had already been erected by Chris Danielson and Kynan Waggoner several months prior, our work week was limited to a very reasonable 8 hours-a-day at the Cliffs gym in Valhalla. Though I only set two qualifiers and one semi, I was extremely pleased with the quality of my work as well as my input on many of the other problems. Not to pat myself on the back too much, but it was definitely the most on-point I have been in a big comp in a long time. Very psyched! Oh, and we got to play laser-tag! I lost. Oh, and 4,000 people showed up to watch finals. NBD.

Route Setting Olympics: the Ladder Challenge

down time at the Cliffs...

Taking commands from the Professor.

The art of the Start Box...

Samples from the Avery Tap Room.....SHITFACED.

The best cocktail I've ever tried: Absinthe Minded - Absinthe, Chartreuse, Frangelico

-Leavenworth: After a week in B-town, we picked up and drove North. And West. Seeing angry clouds in the forecast for BC, we stopped in the weird-ass, faux-Bavarian town of Leavenworth, Washington. Here we enjoyed one full, and two half days of bouldering with temps in the upper 60′s and lower 70′s. Hayden Miller had been telling me about the quality of the blocs in WA for a while now and I was certainly not disappointed. Natasha and I were both able to put down a handful of classics in short order including flashes of the classic V9′s The Sail and Pimpsqueak for me, sends of the neat rail feature bloc The Coffee Cup V9/10 for both of us, the 4 star highball V6 The Ruminator and sketchy power bloc Kobe Tai V8 for Tasha, and a flash of the perfect 45 degree dyno bloc The Cotton Pony V10/11 and a first-go ascent of the sit-start, V11/12 for me. All in all we were really pleased with the easy road-side access and the high quality of the granite in Icicle Canyon. This place definitely merits a return trip…

Flashing Cotton Pony V10/11

The "Minus Bar" start hold on Cotton Pony

The 5 star Ladder Project.....8B???

-Squamish: For several years now, my good friend Jeremy Rush has been gently nudging me to come visit him up in British Columbia where he’s been holed up for the last few summers. When our South Africa plans fell through, Squamish became an obvious plan B. We arrived in Canada 3 days into a 5 day rain system, and our first couple days were spent running around looking at amazing wet rock. Apart from Jeremy, there were some other familiar faces in the forest. J. was renting an apartment with nomadic strong-man Alex Savage, Alabama native Joseph Batistella, and bohemian odd-ball Elise Ebner. Also in town were some good-hearted french Canadians that had worked on Randy’s farm in Trinity last fall. On our second night, we were treated to an outrageous costume dinner party at our friends’ Max and Celeste’s house, and the tone was set for the rest of the trip.

Enjoying the finer things in life with good friends in Squamish.

2 Of Amerikaz Most Wanted

The quality of the granite in Squamish is unparalleled. I was truly taken aback the first time I saw immaculate lines such as Dream Catcher, The Singularity, Teenage Lobotomy, Be On 4, and Resurrection. Unfortunately for Natasha, as soon as the weather started looking up, school obligations pulled her back to the bay, but not before she had some very close last ditch efforts on Defenders of the Faith, a 4 star V9/10 that was one of the only problems that stayed dry through the storms.

For myself, I kicked back with Jeremy and CO and enjoyed 2 weeks of cool temps and intermittent rain. Climbing was productive and I managed to climb many of the classics quite fast; every problem I climbed this summer I did in a single session. Some of my favorites from 14 days in the forest were Summer Vacation V0, Trad Killer V4, This Monkey’s Gone to Heaven V7, Worm World Cave V8, Defenders of the Faith V9, Physics Hyperbole V9, Resurrection V9, Velcro V10, The Egg V11, Black Hole V11, Summoning Sit V11/12, and Vince Pinch Low V13 which I climbed on my perfectly timed “last go” as darkness fell on my last bouldering day.

My only major Squamish failure, Front Side V12

3 days spent on the crux move = no dice

This trip would not have been complete without a little adventure, courtesy of my comrade J.Rush with whom I have shared more than a few mini epics over the years. On my last day in Squamish, J. and I woke up at 6:30am, brewed a couple rounds of espresso, and set off to climb The Grand Wall on BC’s famed big wall, The Chief. The Grand Wall is typically climbed in 9 pitches and takes an average party maybe 6 hours to climb its 700 feet. Myself having never climbed trad before, and Jeremy being relatively new to the discipline himself, we decided to forego the first pitch and took an easier approach to save time. We took a leisurely pace with Jeremy leading every pitch except for the Perry’s Layback pitch near the top, a bolted undercling flake which we both ended up taking on due to unbearable pump. Not too shabbily, this was the only pitch we didn’t climb clean. Jeremy was incredibly psyched to lead the classic pitches The Split Pillar 5.10c and The Sword 5.11a without taking, as this was one of his biggest goals for the summer. Despite our early start, we topped out at the aptly named Bellygood Ledge at 9pm. After crossing the infamously thin part of the ledge, Jeremy was left short roped several feet and had to engineer a makeshift anchor to allow himself passage to safety. I opted for the Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption approach, crawling on my stomach to cross the sketchy two foot wide ledge. It took us another 30 minutes to get off the end of the insecure cliff and another hour and a half to hike down. Jeremy had decided we didn’t need head lamps due to our alpine start, and my iPhone’s LED app was our only source of light. Nothing like not being sure if you’re going to get off a big wall by nightfall to remind yourself that climbing can still take you out of your comfort zone.

Jeremy leading the Split Pillar, 5.10c

Following the Split Pillar

On the final leg of my journey, I met up with my Boston BFF Hayden Miller in Seattle where he was visiting his parents for the weekend. After driving all morning, I found Hayden and his friend Owen at the Index Boulders near Goldbar Washington, and we had some fun-in-tha’-sun near an amazing river. My body was shutting down after being 5 days on and having a big wall hangover, and I decided to save it for the second day. That night I got a taste of Seattle night life as we met some of Hayden’s school friends for drinks. The second day was much more successful. After getting a rough start to our morning when Bryan Boyko’s mini-van stopped responding shortly after we left, we opted to take Owen’s rig, and drove on back to Goldbar; Hayden bailed and went sailing. Bryan, Owen and I warmed up at the storied 5 Star boulder, and I made a pleasant flash of a nice rail problem called Ebriosity V11. Afterwards, we returned to Index where Bryan had some inspiring goes in 80 degree temps on the beautiful shoulder-intensive problem Hagakure V12, and Owen and I both finished up the great polished sloper line, Chutzpah V10/11.

I left the next morning to drive south, stopping north of Portland OR for a couple hours to chill with my good friend Alex Parkinson by a river, before finishing the trek to my new home in San Francisco at 3am. PHEW.

Its been a month since I’ve been in SF, and I’ve been busy getting adjusted to my new routine. Working at Planet Granite has been everything I had expected and more. The work is hard, we start the day at 8am, which means a 6 or 6:30am alarm going off, but having a talented and hilarious crew to work with is immensely enjoyable and is such a welcome change from setting routes by myself. The gyms are fantastic, the terrain is incredibly diverse, and hold selection seems to be limitless. Oh yeah, and I get to use the sauna every day after work. Sigh…..

I’ve been training with a strong crew of good people so far including Sander Pick, Josh Newman, Vitaly Volberg, Brian Hedrick, and Ethan Pringle. So far, the season is looking very promising. With a couple hot bouldering days under my belt already, I’m anxiously crossing the days off my calendar till the Fall temps are here. . . . . #BISHOPANDYOSEMITEFORTHEWIN!!!!

Stay tuned for a few more videos that i’ll be posting of some of the sends from this summer, I still have a bunch of footage to sort through!!

Be good and enjoy the season, ya TURKEYS !!

-MZ-