here are some of the photos from sweathouse creek bouldering. corey just texted me, he found some more of those blocks! can't wait to get out there again!!!

sweathouse boulder sunday

saturday was strange. we got up really early to go climb with corey at loHo, so we were burnt out and back at the house by two in the afternoon. then we went to work for a little while, follwed by a trip to missoula, where after getting lots of necessary things done we met up with jesse (the mullet), ben and shaun for some whiskey and beer. after that we drove home and were back in time for lindsay to go on her girls night out. we got so much shit done, it was incredible. makes me wonder what would happen if we always did that... sunday i met up with corey , steph and two of their friends to develop a new bouldering area at the sweathouse creek near victor. we had a blast! soo much fun putting up new stuff and just finding the lines that appeal to you. I FAd a very nice short problem i called bare-naked ladies (climb it and you'll understand...). it is just a couple of moves, however on the FA three handholds broke. one hit me in the face right below the eye. then the 10inch topout-hold blew. now it looks a little different, some of the holds got worse, still very fun!!! i will post some photos soon!

so it happened

we all knew it would come. one day. that day was yesterday and it changed the face of the earth. well, I made that change the face of the earth part up, you probably noticed. still, it is different. lindsay and me went to boulder loHo after work yesterday and worked on a project we started a couple of weeks ago on the block just right of the classic hangover. a big dynamic first move leads into a crimpy, slightly downward traverse, then around a low corner and a finish via an endpoint move out of terrible crimpy pockets. so what happened? SHE GOT IT FIRST! very proud of her. now it's on!

weekend

it's getting close. this might be a kinda slow one, rain in the forecasts... well, might help my back heal. some more photos from arzl.

dogs

so the owners of the apartment I talked about earlier decided last minute not to accept our dogs. not a very good surprise and I think it is kind of unfair changing opinion the last possible moment. luckily my parents found us a new place quickly and singed the contract today! so now for real, we have a pace to stay in Austria. it is a little, like 10min on a bike, outside of Innsbruck, in a town called Arzl. the good news is that we have three bedrooms plus office and two balconies. So people who come visit can actually stay in their own room (or on their own balcony)! The photos shown the view to the south and north from the balconies...

yesterday biking

at coyote coulee, my first time there and my first time out in the woods with my good friend, the SX trail II. I had a blast. I forgot how exhausting pedaling uphill was, I admit it. but the downhill over all those little jumps was such a laugh. technically not hard, up maybe s0g0 with some s1g0 sections, downhill a plain s0g0, maybe one or two s1g0. sooo fun! Got to go out there again soon...

the photo shows the patio at our new place in Innsbruck.

V8

is not only drinkable, but also doable. also for me now. I sent my first V8 saturday. my tips were almost bleeding and my ego close to an all-time-low when it suddenly all opened up and it went! I am still pretty sore but it felt great. yesterday I joined corey, jesse and friends for some early-day climbing at loHo. they had to leave after a couple of hours which made me go find Ian, Joe, Sam and JD and climb 'til sundown with them. it was great, very goofy. the kind of really fun bouldering that you can get when you know you did good the day before and now can just play freely. Today I gave my last talk at the lab and now I think that a good bottle should help celebrate and heal the pain my bruised body gives me. V8 baby! sooo happy!

being a foreigner listening to pearl jam

Two stories today that will make sense in the end, I promise. I walked the dogs in the morning today, like every day. I decided to listen to Pearl Jam, the No Code album, which I really like. Sometimes I don't quite understand Eddie Vedder's lyrics though because he has a f... potato in his mouth. This time it sounded like something I want to have printed on a T shirt, I will get back to that later. A couple of years ago a friend of mine told me that she was approached by a girl in the climbing gym about this boulder problem she did. The girl told her how cool it was that she could send that problem and asked her how she can stick that funky move. My friends response: "Because I am better than you". I think that's just wrong. I know that climbing is such an ego boost when you get better and if you have a project for a long time after you send it you feel just great, like you can do anything. But I think it really is all just for yourself, not to be better than other people, just better than you were before. So back to Pearl Jam, the line he sung I still don't know but to me it sounded like "come to send, not condescend".

a couple of things

1, go buy the album "third" by portishead.

2, if you are sick, stay at home and recover.

3, huskies are cuter than pugs

climbing was great yesterday. lindsay and me went to loHo after work and met these young kids, the metal kind with long hair, trashed car, bandanas and metallica shirts. we had a blast, such a positive climbing spirit they had. no competition, just having fun playing around, no ego, everyone helping each other out and pushing each other in a very positive way. travis and me sent a couple of V5 and V6, lindsay got super close to two new V6s and then lindsay, travis and me started projecting a V8. he actually got it, it was great. the tip of my right my index finger split down way beneath the skin on the 2nd move crimp. now I have a new project at loHo!!! V8 baby, I hope it goes soon! I will talk about it if it does, no worries...

climbing anyone?

this weekend was kinda mixed. I climbed at loHo friday after work, lindsay started feeling not so good and thus didn't come with me. I brought a little videocam with me and the funny thing is that all of the sudden i wanted to look good while climbing. no grunting and stuff. i caught myself trying to smile while pushing through hard sequences. funny, i never had that happen before. saturday we went to lake como to boulder there with a couple of friends. it was a blast. luckily my friends had good stories to tell on the 4 mile hike out after a couple of hours of pretty hard bouldering... sunday was slow with rain and hail... today back to the horse!!!

tales from new boulders

been climbing a lot lately and now my tips hurt. better than coming down with swine flu I guess... we made a new problem this weekend on the newly named Nutbrown boulder at loHo. great problem, V5ish. if you are small probably V6... even if we all had to go through being mooned by chase while projecting it, it was worth it! ( | )

Slow Lori

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLdQ3UhLoD4

adorable!

biking

I biked to the falls at lake como yesterday. which was nice. but, check this out:

Inspired. Danny MacAskill from dave on Vimeo.

finally

well, it has been a while. today though i had TWO eggs for breakfast (long night last night) after melissa´s party yesterday. then: climbing !!!!! llost horse in february !!!!! it was amazing to be on rock again. now i want spring! yukon and kaia were off leash and we still have them with us, which is really exciting too. oh, and i have a new bike! woooohoooooooo!

texas

this weekend a trip to texas is going to happen. we visit brandon and molly. the girls are supposedly shopping for dresses to wear at the wedding, the males i hope are doing some climbing and maybe have a drink or two. freezing rain tonight might make the trip to spokane airport a little messy, hope everything melts away until wednesday night... well, we will see and i will report. other than that snowboarding was great this weekend. lindsay's family enjoyed montana powder too and we sure had some good food. nice visit! well, i will tell what austin feels like later, c