Rockin' Red Rocks

From March 20-27 Katy Van Dis and myself ventured south to the Desert of Nevada to find some warm rock in this seemingly never-ending winter (My New England crew knows what I'm getting at... Spring is coming, hang in there). The climbing at home is good, but still somewhat unreliable in terms of temps.

In the past three years I've been to Red Rocks three times. This is partially because of the ease of getting there (flights into Las Vegas are always pretty cheap) and there is a veritable lifetime of climbing down there. The sandstone canyons have thousands of routes to challenge one's self... and after almost a month of my life spent there I feel as though I've barely scratched the surface.

If you're reading this entry to search for hard sends and groundbreaking ascents, read no further. This trip was more of a "get in shape again without hurting your knee" kind of trip. The days were long, but mellow. As sweet as the trip was, no 12's or 13's were sent, and no grade IV routes were completed. Just quantity and quality in the name of getting strong for the warm season. A handful of 11c sport climbs and 5.6-5.9 trad climbs.

The trip started out with a night slept in our Ford Edge rental car, as the Spring Breakers had staked their claim to all of the campsites. I awoke at 5:00 am the next morning and pushed our reservation paperwork into its proper place, successfully acquiring a 15x15 plot of desert to explode our gear on. A few hours later, we were dipping our hands in our chalkbags and stretching our weary ligaments on the warm, incut sandstone. After 6 pitches, we retired to Albertson's for amenities and shortly thereafter crashed hard onto our Thermarests.

Every morning we awoke to bright, hot sun and cool breezes. Hot enough to be wary of the sunburn that looms just outside of every shadow, but cool enough to still don insulated jackets and wool hats. I absolutely love the desert for its smells, its toughness and its incredible ecosystem. It seems as though everything is attempting to poke you.

My goal on the trip was to climb a lot and to climb at new crags that I'd never been to before. One specific wall was the Necromancer wall, which was recommended to me by a New England climbing partner, Chris Duca last year when we traveled to Red Rocks. The wall sits in the shade most of the day, and offers a nice moderate assortment of steep cracks. We did two routes here, both two pitches in length.

After completing "Fold Out" (5.8), we had to rap through a gully in order to get back to earth. Three mellow raps were all that separated us from the horizontal world. Starting the raps, I had a strange edginess about the decent. I wasn't scared, I wasn't nervous for our safety... I was just super thorough and extremely attentive. This isn't unlike my usual persona in the mountains, but in this specific instance I was "hyper" aware.

The first rap went smoothly, as did the second. Pulling the rope after the second rap, I made sure to pull slowly and make sure that I untied the knot in the end, which protected us from the all-too common climber error of rapping off the end of the rope into clean space. I then proceeded to tug the rope, which whipped through the webbing and quick-link at the top. The rope stopped. I gently tugged more.... nothing.

Swearing and pulling on the rope, I must have looked like an enraged gorilla trying to reach a Banana tied to the end of a rope. Yanking this way and that... that rope was stuck. We were one rap from the ground, our rope stuck about 50 feet above our heads, and no trail line to use. Not wanting to cut the rope, I then free soloed the 50 feet up (5.4) to get to the rope. A fall would have landed me scratched and bruised in a holly bush, no more.

Arriving at the stuck rope, I immediately swore as I gazed at a perfectly tied overhand knot that had lodged into a crack. I've only had two other times in my climbing career when I've had my ropes stuck, and none of them were instances when the rope tied itself into a knot. Something told me that the decent wouldn't be smooth... whatever it was, I'm glad that it didn't turn out worse. We continued the descent with no other abnormalities... although I gave our rope the hairy-eyeball for the next few days.

We climbed for 5 days, taking one rest day. We totaled two trad days and three sport days. Katy and I usually seem to travel with a large climbing crew, however this time it was just us. This gave us the opportunity to meet other climbers; some great and some complete assholes. It's my opinion that a climbing trip is more than the climbing; its the people, the place, and the experiences.

One such experience is when we met a group of climbers at the "Sweet Pain Wall" who had their ropes up on two climbs... but they weren't climbing. We asked if we could pull their rope and climb. One of them then yelled at us, "Our ropes 'er on the climbs... their ours!" Shaking my head, we moved onto another climb, and met a nice group of guys from Montana. After sharing a few routes with them, we all decided to head to Baja Fresh in town.

After arriving there, we quickly filled up six tables with a bunch of people, some we had met during the day, others that had arrived that knew the Montana crew. After a delicious taco dinner, a few of the guys left, and one guy (The Pharmacist, as we refer to him) told us that the guy that was sitting across from me was none other than Andy the Gladiator from the recent TV show American Gladiators. It was hilarious, seeing as the show is ridiculous and fantastic. He is apparently dating one of the female gladiators from the show as well. Helga maybe?

Other run-ins included at least six people from Bend, including Larry and Greg from PodClimber.com who were filming the Red Rock Rendezvous. Check out the website for the fantastic videos that they made from the trip.

The rest of the trip was filled with great sport climbing, long crack climbing, and lots of sunshine. Red rocks will continue to inspire; it's so close, so warm... and I am beginning to feel as though it's almost more of a home climbing crag than Smith Rocks! Ah... back to Smith we go.

Check out the small video below... we're talking about the color green and Kermit the Frog on one of the descents.

Spring at Smith

For some climbers the season at Smith never ended. Mine has just begun. Because of my knee injury, I've been out off the rock for over two months.

This past weekend was my first real attempt at real climbing (on rock, on the sharp end, on challenging routes.)

The day started off on a few east warm-ups, where I led and felt comfortable. The only times my knee hurt was when I was not moving, and in an energy saving clipping position. I have good range of motion, but sitting in the perch position (heel up my butt, basically) is completely impossible and would cause me excruciating pain.

After the warm-ups, my partner Mike Rougeux and I moved up to Aggro Gully to a 5.11b named Toxic. It is a rather short route (7 or 8 closely spaced bolts). The reason for choosing this route was because it is overhanging, so if I would fall (which I really shouldn't at this point) I wouldn't hit rock... only air. My first burn, I took a fall at the crux (a full dyno at mid-height) then on my second burn I sent with ease.

It felt really good to climb, move, and most of all succeed, even if it wasn't a climb for the record books. Climbing again after this accident makes me realize that I love the rhythm of climbing; the rhythm of moving over rock. When I lose that, I lose a little piece of myself.

Photo: Mike Rougeux on Magic Light, Smith Rocks, Oregon. Drew Peterson Belaying

Healin' Up, and some BIG NEWS

It's officially been two months since my ski accident, and I'm still feeling it every time I get out of bed, or when forget that I'm banged up and try and jump off a curb or get into my car faster than I should.

The MRI results weren't good, but they weren't horrible either. I have an MCL strain (whew!) with a fibular bone bruise (eak!). All together It should be about 2.5 months of recovery time... hopefully only a few more weeks until I can throw down on some warm spring stone.

Now on to the BIG NEWS.

I've been offered a job with the National Forest Service, and I accepted! I will be working 4 days a week and 6 months out of the year with the Forest Service as a Forestry Technician. I'll be outside all day, everyday... using my degree.

The other big news is that I also accepted a position with an internet climbing media company called PodClimber. I'm a sales rep, and I'll work selling content and maintaining and acquiring relationships with anything related to climbing that we wish to promote or produce.

This all boils down to me being happy at my job, outside... and having plenty of time for climbing!

Looks like 62 degrees and sunny on Sunday... I'll follow up here with an update on how the day goes. I've got a trip to Red Rocks in Nevada in about 2 weeks, so hopefully it'll feel top notch!

Dreamin' of a Better Day...

Sitting, watching the snow flying. That's about all I've been up to these days.

About 4 weeks ago I had a pretty bad spill on my skis and decided to tear up the inside of my left knee. Today is the one month anniversary of the accident, and I'm scheduled for an MRI this Thursday. Needless to mention, I have had very few adventures since my incapacitation.

What have I been doing? Catching up on life.

Climbing takes a certain amount of discipline, and a large amount of training time. Since I don't have the ability to climb, I've taken time for myself and started a different type of workout; one that will hopefully help me in the coming climbing season.

It's pretty simple... take care of my body in a way that I haven't or can't during the climbing season. I've been working out muscles that don't get much attention in climbing (i.e. pushing muscles, as opposed to the overworked pulling "climbing" muscles), focusing on my diet as much as possible, and take the time to sit, think, read and plan.

For the first time in 6 years I've paid to use a gym facility, buying a membership to the local weight room in Bend. Unlike the normal meat-market feeling of a weight room, the fitness center here in Bend is full of climbers, mountain bikers and other insane endurance athletes. Instead of seeing Adidas and Under Armour, all I see is Patagonia, Prana and Pearl Izumi.

Strengthening my pushing muscles has a few things going for it; I'll be evening out my rather uneven body (strong back, chicken chest) and all the while I'll be strengthening joints and avoiding pinched nerves and the like. I've already noticed a difference in my posture, and one of my largest weaknesses (core strength) is improving.

Diet is another genre that I've focused on. I'm eating the same foods, but I'm making a conscious effort to reduce the amount of rich foods that I eat in order to ward off the possibility of gaining weight. I'm exercising almost every day, but I'm still not burning off the calories like I did when I was training by climbing. I'm also trying to eat the best foods possible to help in the healing process. I'm convinced that a good diet will make the difference between being a solid climber and an injured climber.

Other things that I do is read, plan and dream of the future. I've surrounded myself with new guidebooks, magazines, and the internet to help me plan future trips. My current dream that I'm planning out is an Alpine big wall in The Dolomites of Italy. It's called the Brandler-Hasse (AKA Direttissima) V+ 5.12a / 7a+ 550m. Its an 18-20 pitch (unconfirmed actual amount of pitches) overhanging mixed line on the Cima Grande, in the Italian Alps. The North facing route climbs directly up the middle of the overhanging face on challenging mixed pitches. Pins apparently exist on the route in difficult areas from early ascents, and the rest is protectable with nuts and cams. The pitches are known to be sustained; 1 of 5.12a, 4 of 5.11, 4 of 5.10). The first 350m are continuously overhanging. Take the Grand Teton in Wyoming and drop a knife on the north face to make it clean cut to the bottom. Then, tilt the Grand a few more degrees to make it past vertical, and you've got the North face of Cima Grande in Italy. Exposure, hard climbing and a remote location make this one that I'd love to get on. Below is a closer up topo of the route. Click to zoom. (For those of you not used to looking at a climbing topo... the distance between the dots on the photo below are approximately 100 feet at the very least.)
I'll be dreaming of this piece of rock as I slide through the imaging tube on Thursday...

Off Season

One of the benefits to living in Central Oregon is "year round" climbing in impeccable weather. This time of year, however, is the hardest of the times to actually find anything to do if you are an addicted and performance oriented climber. Granted I could just hop a $79.00 flight to Vegas and leave some skin on desert sandstone, but life isn't always that easy.

The time between the months of December and February are somewhat difficult to climb. The weather is 50/50 in terms of reliability (the other 9 months of the year the days are normally 100% guaranteed to be sunny, breezy days) and the temperatures play a dramatic role in determining whether I can (or should) be out there on the rocks.

So what to do? What does an energetic and ADD climber do to keep himself sane and pass the time? Well for starters I spend money... I don't know if I'm trying to compensate for some sort of unhappiness or some lack of fulfillment, but I seem to spend money during these "off months". That being said, I recently spent a good chunk of money on new skis, boots, bindings all all the other goodies that a back country skier needs.

One of the great things about my life thus far is that I've invested so much time into climbing that I've become rather proficient at it. It has been very rewarding, and much of the good things in my life have stemmed from my vertical endeavors.

One thing that has lacked in my life is basically anything that has to do with anything other than climbing. Granted, being a skilled "all 'rounder" at climbing has given me the knowledge to transcend efficiently into different genres... backpacking, endurance sports, etc. But when it comes to the one outdoor pastime that 99% of the general population have an association with, skiing, I am a complete novice.

Skiing is the one outdoor activity that I have zero experience with. Growing up in Pennsylvania, sledding was much more inviting to me, and when I lived in Vermont, Ice Climbing was all I could think about. Skiing just didn't fit the budget (equipment, silly lift tickets) and I never had to pay to climb icicles. It was only when I moved out West and realized what real snow was that I became interested in hucking myself down snowy embankments.

So, after getting squared away with the best shiny equipment my little bank account could buy, I headed out and hoped that my balance and general athletic ability would help me in my quest to be a "ski-mountaineer".

On my third run, I realized that the bunny hill was now obsolete. I skied the rest of the day and felt pretty good about myself, and realized why 99% of the general population straps boards to its feet.


On New Years day, myself and a crew of 4 (including a powder-hound dog, Cinco) headed into the Central Oregon back country to test the 90" of snow that we have on the ground. After a 2.5 hour ascent to near 8000', we strapped on the skis hit the bowl near Mt. Bachelor. The powder had turned nearly to cement, and the skiing was difficult. Here's Katy's first run of the day... inspiring for an aspiring skier like myself. The Right video is Rebecca Larsen ripping through the bowl getting in some solid tele turns, with Cinco following not too far behind.



I fared worse than Katy, basically toppling down the entire 2000' to the car. I even managed to twist my knee. I'm not used to lower extremity injuries in climbing, so I had no idea what a bad knee injury felt like. I realized then and there while Cinco was licking the snow off my ski goggles that I am not willing to give up climbing for skiing, so I'm going to take it really easy from here on out. Blowing my knee for the spring climbing season? Not an option. I felt a little sore yesterday, but I think I avoided serious injury. That was the wake-up call that I needed.

Photo below: My crew Katy and Corey on the top of Cinder Cone, near Mt. Bachelor, OR. The giant in the background is South Sister.I'm hoping to take a lesson to get more proficient at skiing, and in the process hurt myself as little as possible. Climbing is still #1, but I'm hoping to have some excellent ski-mountaineering adventures come spring.

Smith Rock

This past weekend Katy and I ventured 40 minutes from our couch to our normal stomping grounds of Smith Rock. This is our local crag, and we climb here once, if not twice a week.

The fall brings great temperatures, great friction, and big sends! The only bad part about the autumn are the crowds in "the park" as we call it. When the people venture from their dark, dirty cities and come out to enjoy our backyard, we try and find the "special" spots, and this past Sunday we found one. Venturing about an hour from the car, we set off on our approach to the backside of Smith Rock State Park to a 5 pitch route called Wherever I May Roam (5.9 II) 400'. It's completely bolted, and we stretched it into a few hours. The climbing was good, and the positioning and exposure were great! Although not difficult, it was nice to get up off the ground and climb a route that we had yet to do. That, and this was one of Katy's hardest multi-pitch climbs to date. Granted she climbs 5.12 single pitch climbs, but multi-pitch brings a whole new dimension to her mental game.


"My goal is to have photos on multi-pitch climbs where I'm actually smiling." Katy told me before we got on the route. This one made her frown for a few pitches, but after a nicely exposed arete, she confessed that the fear makes her somewhat excited to do longer, harder routes.

"We're working on it [the fear]." Said Katy at the top.

Red River Gorge, Kentucky

Just this week one of my stories was published! Currently it is the featured story on www.greatoutdoors.com , and specifically you can click the link below to get there:

http://www.greatoutdoors.com/published/climbing-in-kentucky039s-red-river-gorge

Thanks for reading!

There's a bit more info about this trip in an earlier post <--> Click here.

As for the adventures, I've been training very hard to get back into sport climbing shape; yesterday I sent a mini-project of mine called Torrid Zone (5.12a) at Smith rocks. I did it on my second try, which is always a nice feeling. Previous to yesterday I was climbing with my boy Ben Moon on Tsunami (5.12c), but I think that may take me a bit more work than Torrid Zone. The goal is to climb as hard as possible through the fall and winter in order to completely CRUSH everything I try in the spring in my adventures.

Enjoy fall!