Its been two months since I put anything up on the blog.  After the Prophet mission it was straight to China to establish new routes near Liming with Matt Segal, Lauren Callaway and John Dickey.  That’s the second time I’ve gone from the top of El Cap to San Francisco airport in less than 24 hours… maybe a sign to start buffering flights a little more. 

The Prophet trip was incomparable.  In the end, I didn’t quite send the A1 beauty, which was a bummer.  But, with all worthy things in life, sometimes they don’t go down easy.  So, I’ll be back.  Maybe next fall.  Watching Sonnie send the A1 at sunset was maybe the most inspiring thing I’ve ever witnessed.  In the end, he fell exactly once on the entire final push.  Not bad, buddy, not bad…

 

Sonnie just wrote something for Gripped about the whole experience which turned out real well.  Stay tuned for that.  Also, Sonnie cobbled together a pretty funny little video of some ledge time on the Prophet:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IItjQw0n1Kc

Sorry to all the british folk out there for the terrible british accents.  Basically, it made us less scared to talk British on that rig: less like scaredy-cat Canadians, and more like tough-as-nails Brits like Jason Pickles and Leo Houlding.    But as you can see, we had loads of fun up there, even in the midst of make-or-break redpoint turmoil.

After the whirlwind of travel I hung out in North Vancouver for holiday season, which was a blast.  I haven’t been home for Christmas in a few years, so it was good to hang tough with the family and friends.

December seaside granite with Janine at Lighthouse Park.

Now I’m in Bishop CA.  The sun is shining, and it seems like winter hasn’t really hit yet here in California.  I made a quick stop in Bend Oregon to visit some friends.

 

Brooke Sandahl: climbing pioneer, surfer, gear-innovator, and all around cool guy.  Ben Moon photo

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Volcanoes on fire.  Sunset from Brooke’s house.

 

I’m here in Bishop for about ten days.  Then, Alex Honnold, Andy Burr and I will be heading down to El Gran Trono Blanco to fool around on some Mexican granite.  I’ve been in there once before, four years ago with Paul McSorley. Below are some shots from that mission.

 

Cantina in Tecate. Dos Tequilas por favor.

Roadside Virgin Mary.  Ruta 3.

 

Traditional Aussie Schoolboy t-shirt as a hat combo in the hot Mexi-sun.

Stoked on top of dome with Paul.

 

Dykes.

 

Federales.  Whatever you say, boss.