The Little Giant

It's here.

The ender-of-worlds. The bringer-of-pain. The apparatus del muerto.

Folks, Santa Barbara Forge and Iron would like to welcome a new member to its ever-growing tool family! This week, we finally shipped the Little Giant (blacksmithing power-hammer) into our shop. It weighs over a ton, I should think. I'm insanely excited. For those who don't know what the Little Giant does, here's a short explanation:

-- Utilizing a foot-pedal, the machine engages a wheel which...
-- makes a 50 pound sledge go up...
-- and DOWN
-- then UP
-- and DOWN

And so on and so forth. Basically, the Little Giant takes over much of the tedious—but necessary—hammering in the blacksmithing process. Here's to not having elbow tendonitis when I'm older.

Pics coming soon...

Buena Vista Project: Day 3

I don't know whether to be stoked or bummed.

This was my first day of actually working all the moves on the project, and the outlook is grim. Or wonderful. It depends on how you look at it. Elijah and I spent a while playing top-rope tough-guy, and what looked like a decently hard route on rappell became a snarling, foaming-at-the-mouth beast by the end of our session. I've never flailed so hard on a piece of rock. EVERY SINGLE MOVE is friggin hard. So, I'm stoked that I found a legitimately hard project for some strongman (let's be honest: it probably won't be me any time soon) to send. But I'm bummed that the moves are way, way, way beyond me. Perhaps I'm just being negative.

Elijah and I quickly tired of thrutching, so we went to the Shed for campusing. Basically, campusing felt like an ego-booster after the Buena Vista boulder.

Pictures of the project coming soon...

It's raining in paradise (a.k.a. It's raining at the Tor)

It rained this Saturday. I haven't woken up to a drizzly Saturday in years, or at least it seems that way. And while everyone was snug in their beds, or chowing down Aunt Jemimah pancakes, Phil, Elijah, Elhanon and I made the drive to the Central Coast's all-weather climbing destination: the Owl Tor. While the Tor's steepness kept most of the holds dry, general humidity and moisture made some pockets slick as snot. No matter how strong I felt that day, I still peeled off big holds. Most noteworthy was my 35+ foot whipper on Power of Eating. Note to self: don't skip clips on the last, tired burn of the day.

Also noteworthy was my bolt-to-bolt ascent of Better Than Life, 5.13c. I've never climbed on a hard 5.13 (other than Wild Kingdom, which is 5.13a). It felt... hard. And fun. We'll see. I still need to garner some endurance. Here's some footage of me sussing a section towards the top of BTL:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/badgermilk/2915781491/

All in all, I felt like a truck hit me by the end of the day.

Trail Running up Tunnel Trail

Today, I indulged in the runner mecca that is the Santa Barbara front-country. Originally intending to have a nice, 35 minute jaunt up Tunnel trail, I took a fire road that I hadn't explored before. Woops. I ended up suffering on a super sustained uphill for about an hour. It was completely worth it. Expansive views, perfect temps, and the fear of being attacked by a mountain lion reminded me that SB is rad.

Dinner was homemade tomato soup. Delish.

Buena Vista Project: Day 2

Here are the much-awaited pics. They're not stellar, I know, but it's very hard to get perspective of the boulder because trees get in way. By the way, that's Paul wielding the drill on the steep part of the route. Also included is a picture of the adjacent boulder, which touts some as-yet-uncleaned boulder problems. It's a fine piece of rock as well.

Dang, it feels good to be productive...

THE GOOD NEWS: I just returned from a mini-epic adventure in the Southern Sierra Nevada. Jeff Dunbar and I traipsed around Dome Rock and The Needles, climbing some very classic lines, including Igor Unchained (perhaps the best 5.9+ for 45 light years in all directions), Just Barely (stupidly creative 5.11b), the perfect Anti-Jello Crack (5.10), and Tree Route (the most sustained jamming possible for a 5.6). Basically, the weekend was tradtastic.

THE BAD NEWS: I am sick as a dog right now.

I'm planning on getting better tonight after downing the rest of my Nyquil bottle. Hopefully, I'll crank on something this weekend at the Tor, but I'm not making any promises. This sickness seems to be hanging on.

By the way, that's not me in the photo of Igor Unchained (3rd pitch). I'll post some pics when I have them.

Buena Vista Project: Day 1

Andre and I trucked up the trail with her two pooches (Bahini and Schatzi) to start cleaning the project and, hopefully, climb a little. I set a top-rope then rapped in with some scrub brushes. The rock quality ranged from excellent, Skofield Park quality, to choss. The crux moves are all on pretty good rock, however. Speaking of crux moves, Andre and I attempted the bottom ten feet of the route, and quickly found that we were in way, way over our heads. The route is all there, but strangely NOT there at the same time. Leading this route is going to be like pulling a 40 foot V9. Or something like that.

So far, here's the breakdown from what I can see on rappell:

-- first ten feet start waaay steep on pockets and huecos.
-- Several desperate slaps, then you gain a "ledge" of awkward gastons. Probably clip here.
-- Enter the real crux. Burl thyself into a rad undercling, set up feet, then throw (huck, hurl, chuck...?) for a sloping crimp.
-- Begin a back-muscle race against exhaustion as you deadpoint sloping crimps to pull the huge bulge, and top out.

All in all, it looks like 35 or 40 feet of climbing. Good stuff, indeed.