Getting settled back in here today, but I did come across something cool over on Patagonia.com. It appears they’ve put together a little climbing section to go with their new catalog (which has a climbing focus), including some videos and interviews. I just listened to the Henry Barber interview, which I posted below. Very cool, and well worth the listen. Among what he considers his proudest achievements, 67 first ascents in 42 days in Australia, and the first ascent of Deans Day Off (5.12- R), which is probably my favorite climb on the Pass. Of course if I ever want to lead it, I’ll have to headpoint it into submission, whereas he did it barefoot! What a badass.

There’s some other good looking stuff on there as well, including a video with Sonnie Trotter and interviews with Eric DeCaria and Lynn Hill. Lots of fun to zone out to while you’re working, enjoy!

The Grand Teton, limestone sport climbing, granite boulders, 1000′ sport climb and basalt cragging…and that’s just the last 11 days! Time to get some work done, hang with friends here in Boise and then back to Colorado on Sunday.

Yesterday I got to check out the Memorial Route on Slick Rock, a 1000′ sport climb that goes at 5.8+ (felt harder to me but I am sucky at slabs). Very worthy route, if Slick Rock were in Colorado these climbs would always have people on them. In Idaho, there are so few climbers that the approach trail is heavily overgrown in places. We couldn’t have asked for a finer day, and fully enjoyed the cool breeze and beautiful views of the rocky Lick Creek range. The climbing was fun, though my toes were hurting by the end of the day from so much slab-tacular-ness. I paused in the creek crossing getting back to the car, letting the cold water sooth my aching feets. Before heading back to Boise we enjoyed some tasty pizza in McCall and views of the lake on the north end of town.

This morning we had a little early morning session at the Black Cliffs. This columnar basalt area sits 5 minutes from my friend Jeff’s house, and offers hundreds of routes. We knocked out a bunch of fun moderates before the shade was gone and it was time to head back into town for a shower and work.

It’s been fun to be living and working on the road, but I’ve been gone for two weeks and I’m jonesing to get back to Colorado and see what fun can be had on the local choss. I’m thinking Hagerman is going to be a good spot to escape the heat, and maybe even put up a route or two…

Well, my time here in Jackson is at an end. Got to check out some fun stuff despite being focused on wedding and family time. Getting some work done today, then off to Boise to meet up with friends and hopefully climb a 9 pitch sport route tomorrow. We climbed a trad line on the same formation last year and it was a lot of fun. Excellent rock in a fantastic setting. Once we tap all the unclimbed rock around Carbondale (yeah right) it’ll be time to head to McCall, that place is just waiting to go off.

I’ve always wondered about the cragging around Jackson. Sure the mountaineering is top notch, but what is there to do if you don’t want to hike for two hours? Well, while the options aren’t huge, turns out there is some fun stuff lurking in the shadows of the peaks. I’ve been sneaking away during the wedding week festivities here to sample some of the local stone.

Boulder Town is an area of glacial erratics over by String Lake, with blocks from 5 to 30 feet tall. Some even have top anchors and are used by local guide services for teaching kids. I only had an hour, but found some fun problems to play around on, and saw many more that looked really fun. The setting, of course, was beautiful.

Yesterday we made it up to the Rodeo Wall for a quick morning session. This small cliff is 20 minutes from town and offers a dozen or so routes on featured limestone. From small crimps to big pockets, this wall seemed to have a good variety of styles, and we had a good time checking it out.

We’re hoping to get out and sample the Guides Wall, a cragging objective with a “short” approach by Teton standards (1 hour?). Stay tuned for more fun from the north country.

This coming weekend my brother is getting married in Jackson, and what better way to celebrate the end of his bachelor hood than with an ascent of the Grand Teton via the Upper Exum Ridge. I’ve spent a lot of time in Jackson in the winter, but the summer trips always seem to revolve around family, so I’d never had the chance to get into any of the big peaks in the warmer months. Fortunately that was about to change.

I drove up on Saturday morning and got to town in the afternoon. We packed up and hit the trailhead, hiking towards the Meadows camping area around 6pm. Two hours and five miles later we were at the Meadows, an incredible basin surrounded by some of the Teton’s proudest peaks. There was still a ton of snow, as Jackson received over 600″ this winter, and like Colorado it’s been slow to melt.

Our alarm was set for 4am, but we were concerned the raging creek we were camped next to might drown out the sounds. When I woke up to light in the sky, this suspicion was confirmed, as we had overslept. Not too worried, as the forecast called for great weather all day, we made quick breakfast and started tromping up the firm snow towards the Lower Saddle.

The view from the Lower Saddle was fantastic, the peaks in Idaho still holding an incredible amount of snow. Most of our route looked melted out, with maybe a few lingering snow patches here and there. We made quick progress up the 3rd and 4th class terrain, and crossed one more snowfield before we were on Wall Street where we roped up for the incredibly exposed move getting to the first belay ledge on the Upper Exum.

The route from there on was fantastic, and it was very cool to see how it all came together as it makes its way up a big ridge at a moderate grade. The rock was excellent, and we were wishing some of the more technical pitches would go on longer, as they were just too much fun. They were often followed by fourth class sections, a little snow here and there, and soon we were standing across from the summit block with one final snowfield to cross. We put our boots back on, got out the axes and made for the top.

The summit was surprisingly empty except for one group of three who had just come up the East Ridge. They were out of water, and only stayed a short while before heading down for the Lower Saddle and the water waiting there. So we got to enjoy the summit of the Grand Teton, in July, all by ourselves (did I mention that we also saw no one else on the route?)! The view was incredible, with peaks in every direction, the Winds to the east, many peaks in Idaho to the west, Jackson lake below us. Not a bad spot. After what is always too little time, we decided to make our way back down and began the descent.

Eventually we found ourselves back at our tent at the Meadows. We quickly packed up camp, busted out the last five miles of trail and went straight to Masa Sushi in Teton Village to cap the end of an excellent day in the mountains!