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After over  24 hours of non stop travel I finally arrived Yangshou China. Travel is never an easy thing, despite all the planning and preparation journeying halfway around the world is seldom without complications. With the recent airline terrorist threat , security at US airports in now at a heightened level, which in my case meant long lines. As result I came very close to missing my flight from Los Angeles to Guangzhuo. In fact, I had to run to the gate and they literally closed the planes door after I stepped inside. The flight was 14 + hours, but on the bright side there was an empty next to me, so I was able to stretch out a little during the flight. I was flying to China to meet a friend and fellow NOLS instructor Szu-ting ( a native of Taiwan) and spend the next two and half weeks rock climbing in the Yangshuo region of southern China. Szu-ting or Ting Ting as her friends call her was having epic travels of her own with cancelled flights and long bus rides, but we where able to connect in Guilin and the travel to Yangshuo yesterday. The topography of this area is amazing with literally thousands of limestone towers (called Karst formation) stretching  out arcoss the horizon. For our first day of climbing we rented single speed bikes and peddled for 20 minutes to a cliff called the Wine Bottle and spend the afternoon grabbing tufas, pulling on pockets and crimping on the rather sharp limestone.

Guangshuo China Airport

Climbers at the Wine Bottle Cliff Yangshuo China

Szu-ting stemming to a tufa at the Wine Bottle Yanshuo China

Andrea Watson and I spent a week scouting, filming and conducting interviews to learn about to lowest point in North America, Death Valley in CA. This is the first step in the “Rising Up” project – traveling to the lowest point on each continent to learn about the environment and the people who live there.

Here is a short clip that I shot during my time there

The NOLS Leader just published an article by Jared Spaulding about our expedition to the Piritas Valley of Argentina earlier this year.

Voces en la noches

NOLS Leader Article

You can read the excellent, funny article here in the Leader on page 10.

Guy Lacelle was killed by an avalanche near Bozeman, MT on Dec 10, 2009. (see Climbing.com for details)

I first met Guy in 1994 (?) in Red Rocks. We climbed about the same level and shared a rope for a day at the Gallery clipping bolts. He was very unassuming and did not let on that he was a total bad ass in the world of ice climbing. But I knew who he was as his name was already in the mags.

When I think about a climber like Chris Sharma, I am blown away by his climbing ability. No one is born a great climber, you need to put the effort into developing good techniques, but you can have the best technique in the world and still not be able to climb the hardest routes. Unfortunately, in climbing, like in every “sport,” genetics helps. Although Guy and myself seemed to posses roughly the same natural ability, what separated us was his mental focus and confidence that  allowed him to consistently solo several long WI6 routes in less than a day. In many ways, Guy ability to overcome the mental barriers of climbing challenging routes was more inspiring than Sharma raw power (not that I have any desire to solo WI 6 anytime soon).

When I saw him  this fall, again in Red Rocks, I was guiding for NOLS and had a group of four students with me at Moderate Mecca, a cliff that usually no one goes to (the reason I was there). Anyway, about 15 people from some type of local Vegas meet up group showed up and epic’ed trying to lead the easiest (5.8) sport route. Guy wasn’t phased by the crowd of gumbies. He was just psyched to climb.

We talked briefly about China, as we had both spent time in Western Sichuan. We traded stories about one of the local guides there named Lion. Lion was one of those fast talking, had to have the latest equipment, knew all of climbing’s cool people, yet didn’t really like to climb that much sort of guy. In classic Guy style, of never saying anything bad about someone, his only hint at judgement was when he said, “Ya, Lion was a little over the top”

Guy had his 15 y/o dog with him. When I asked him his dogs name, Guy said, “doesn’t really matter he/she can’t really hear anymore, but a nice pat goes along ways.”

Guy Lacelle and his dog image courtesy of Arcteryx

What an amazing man, so sad.

Last weekend Laura Ditolla and I headed to the western of UT to scout the Blue Mass Scenic area as a potential location NOLS might be able to use for climbing camps. I briefly visited the area in October and was impressed by the unique granite found there. The rock is a cross between City of Rocks, ID and the Needles of SD. The Blue Mass scenic area is located at 7,500 feet. Due to little or no snow accumulations this season, I was anxious get up there and have a detailed look, before a big storm block the road. We were able to get in and hike around and look at potential climbing options as well as inventory what had been climbed there already. However ,a couple inches of snow the night before and temperatures in the teens prevented us for doing a lot of climbing. The area is incredibly “scenic” and has a tremendous potential for single pitches routes and is close to the Deep Creek/Granite Canyon area that offers another unexplored plethora rock walls. Here is a short rather silly video about our adventure.

Last week Lauren Ditolla, Christian G. and I ventured out into the cold december up in Big Cottonwood Canyon trying to squeak in one last day of climbing before the inevitable winter storms arrive and blanket the cliffs in snow until May. the air temperatures did not get above 32 F, but climbing in the direct sun with little wind made the climbing just bearable. I had just received my new Sanyo Xacti VPC HD2000 camcorder and was exciting to try out this tiny full HD camcorder. We only climbed three routes in the upper S curve area, but I was able to get some footage of Lauren climbing Ionic Bonding (5.11a). Check out the video

I once again spent Thanksgiving in Indian Creek, UT. For the last two Thanksgivings I have been guiding in Red Rocks outside of Las Vegas, NV, so it was a real treat to spent the holiday with some good friends away from the craziness of Vegas. Many other people also make the sojourn to the Creek for Thanksgiving, so I am usually more focused on spending time with friends, that I have not seen for a long time, than getting in a lot of pitches. But we managed choose uncrowded cliffs and actually partook in some great climbing. Here is a link to some images from the Creek including the dance off that my friends Jenn and Sarah won (girls stripping always wins).

Jenn Pine Leading Puma cat Wall Indian Creek, UT

http://gallery.me.com/kondus#100492

Just returned from a great three weeks of guiding in Red Rocks Conservation Area, NV. I was there instructing a NOLS semester course. We had great weather with only one mild wind storm and decent temperatures during our time there and the students were able to get in a lot of climbing.

Sam bearing down on the Pearl V5/6

http://gallery.me.com/kondus#100494

Szu-ting Yi climbing Sail Away Joshua Tree, CA

I returned from a short climbing trip to Joshua Tree, CA with my friends Brigitte and Szu-ting. 20 years ago I used to be a good slab climber, able to trust my feet on the smallest most insecure footholds and competently run it out to the next bolt. This past week in Joshua Tree, even though I climb several number grades harder than I did 20 years ago, I found that I had lost most of my slab climbing ability. Even with my super comfy and sticky Evolve Defy SE and edge climbing masters the Pontas lace up shoes I couldn’t trust my feet. Too much overhanging Maple Canyon cobble grabbing and Momentum gym routes has reduced my footwork to that of first year climber it seems.

Luckily my crack climbing skills have not suffered the same fate as my footwork and I enjoyed the crisp jams of several JT classics

http://gallery.me.com/kondus/100476