We started the day off with the tour of the Boeing plant just down the street from my apartment. It was cool see how they put together the 747's, 777's and the yet to be released 787's. Each one had it's own unique assembly line.
Next it was into town to go to the aquarium. It was pretty cool, but I expected more from a coastal city. Picked some of my favorite videos I got there:
To end the weekend off we saved the best for last, a Sounders game! This was a crazy experience. No other MLS team has a following like this. They were also kind enough to win 2-0.
So may parents were in Seattle this last weekend, so I finally got to do some of the tourist things around town. We starting things off on saturday by going to the Experience Music and Sci-Fi Museum. This place covers two of my favorite things outside of climbing.
(The tower of guitars in the center of the museum) (Nirvana's old gear)
(Eddie Van Halen's famous guitar)
(I shouldn't need to explain this one)
(What I wanted to be when I grew up. So jealous of Cory Feldman)
(Aren't you a little short to be a Storm Trooper?)
(Dude, your skin fell off)
(Farscape was one of the greatest sci-fi shows ever)
(This is a favorite b-rate sci-fi movies of my sister and I. Jane Fonda is sooo hot)
(A Freman stillsuit from the movie Dune. If you haven't read the book, do it now)
After, we decided to go catch a movie as the weather was being classic Seattle, and therefor, unpleasant to be in. We headed up to Lynnwood to see Despicable Me. This movie is fantastic. It's so good I really can't put it into words. So go see it... and feel free to invite me, 'cause I want to see it again.
A very well played game that saw the Mariners come back in the 8th for the win. I was disappointed in the Mariner fans though. The people at the park were split about 50/50 between Mariner and Red Sox fans. The Sox fans would cheer when the Sox made a good play or just a general "Let's go red Sox!" chant. There were several Mariner fans however that felt the need to yell "Red Sox suck!" or "You suck Drew!" (if you couldn't tell from the picture above, I was in the section near JD Drew) whether or not the Mariners were ahead or behind. The most ridiculous one came when some lady randomly pointed at me and yelled "You guys suck!" when I was walking out of the park with everyone else.
I expect this kind of stuff to go on at Red Sox/Yankees games, but I wasn't expecting it here. Especially with the Mariners walking out the winners. It will be interesting to see if it happens again with a different team in a few weeks when I go to a game while my parents are in town visiting.
So I finally made my first trip out to Index this last weekend. It was very eye opening as to what climbing on gear out here is going to take. Very different from back east. We only got in a few pitches because Rudy had to get home to pack for Atlanta, but the quality was outstanding. I only ended up top roping, but made up for it by getting on the stellar Marginal Karma (5.11b). I know I'll be able to lead it as soon as I can place my gear more efficiently. Can't wait to get back.
Ok, now to jump back to two weekends ago. The original plan was for Chelsea and I to head out to Little Si, but with Washington weather being what it is, we instead took the sure thing and headed out to Leavenworth. Nothing crazy went down, but Chelsea got back on Scrabbled Eggs (V8) for a second time and was very close to sending. Considering she hasn't trained for bouldering in months, this is a problem that should go down easy in the fall when she's back in shape for it. As for me, I messed around on some easier problems until we made our way over to the Swift Water area. There is a schist cave in the back corner of the picnic area that made me quite homesick for Rumney. I only did the V7 line, but it's first hard schist climbing I'd done since the move and it got me wicked psyched for my trip home in late August.
Then there was last weekend. Two solid days of real rock action. Saturday was spent running sport routes at the Nevermind Wall at Exit 38 with Andy. A solid day that went 5.1a, 5.12a, 5.11b, 5.12a, 5.10d. The endurance in slowly coming back. But then there was sunday, the day of power pulling on the boulders of Gold Bar. I had one clear goal heading up there, Twisted (V10). I had worked on the problem once before a few months ago, putting in at least 15 tries. So after a long hike and a quick warm up, I went back to battle with my nemesis. It got an early lead by spitting me off the first of the hard moves, a move I had gotten dialed on the previous session. I got the feel for the move back after several attempts and then the work began. Attempt after attempt, but the no progress was to be made. I was starting to think that it would no go after all, but I didn't plan to stop trying until I didn't have any skin left on my fingers. And then it happened. A slight twist of my right foot, putting my body in a slightly different position, allowing me to hold onto that bad vertical pinch. I had that momentary pause where I realized that I was not hitting the pad below me, but in fact, was still on the rock. I quickly got my wits about me, snagged the next crimp and finally latched the first of the top out jugs. I rocked up onto the moss laden slab and carefully made my way up and over to the easy walk off the back side. I had finally done it! After more than 30 tries, I'd finally done my first V10! While this was a goal I could only dream of 3 years ago, I now know that it is only the beginning of things to come. Especially if I can build the endurance to transfer this power to longer rope routes. This coming year is looking very bright indeed.
So I took my off day on the nicest weekend in weeks and went inside to watch my kids compete at the SCS Division 1 Championships. I was only able to be there for the first day qualifying round as I had no place to stay in portland and had no intension of making a 3 hour drive for the third time in 24 hours. I'll post links to sundays finals coverage from other people as they become available. Now that that's out of the way, here's qualifiers.
After we did a quick stop at The Undercling (V5) for the sole reason that I had never onsighted a V5. This only bothered me because I've onsighted every other grade up to V7, but 5's always seem to get under my skin somehow. So here is how it went...
Next we headed over to Pretty Hate Machine (V8) because we heard it was wicked sick problem that just had to be climbed. It doesn't look like much when you first approach it, but the climb itself does not disappoint. Despite being quite powerful, it took us several tries to sort out the beta. Here's one of the later (read better) early attempts...
After a lot of tries like this we started to get pretty tired, so I declared that unless I at least touched the lip on this next try, the day would be done...
So we stuck around and two tries latter...
Before I sign out for the day, I'd like to give a shout out to that rock by Pretty Hate Machine for being in the perfect place to rest my Droid so we could get those videos and still spot.
So I got to tag along for the photo shoot in Leavenworth for the new Vertical Girl clothing line. The ladies seemed really psyched on the way the cloths looked and, more importantly for a climber, how they performed. Here are a few vids from the shoot. A lot more went on, but you'll get to see that in print!
I was lazy and didn't get any vids or pics from the event, but I'll hook you up with a link to Tyson's stuff over on oldguy.com for those of you that don't read it already. Time to start kicking things into gear for Divisionals.
Really enjoyed this new short from Big Up. Seeing some old friendly faces made me a bit home sick, but outside of that it got me really psyched to train. Been needing that to supplement my outdoor time. May have to make a small stop at the Central Rock Gym on my trip home now since the place looks sick.
