Outdoors

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Wow! What a day! Got included on a group off summitpost making an ascent of Lone Peak. The group included "Grizz" (mtn_rnr on summitpost) who was making his 100th ascent of the mountain. I was making my second... Gotta start somewhere though!

Well, it's every climbers favorite time of year, REI dividend time! I had gone over in my head what I wanted to spend my dividend on. A few cams? A tent (after all these years I still don't have one)? A rope (ended up buying this a week ago... before dividends...)? Well, today I decided on new boots. So, I headed down to my friendly neighborhood REI to try some on. There were a few pairs I was eying while helping Matthew pick out a pair. The first pair I tried was terribly uncomfortable... So, I skipped over it. I ended up buying the Vasque Switchback. They immediately felt comfortable. I imagine that after breaking them in, they will simply be an extension of my foot. Way better than my original boots that I got about three and a half years ago. The sole is actually Vibram rubber, the tread pattern way better. More ankle support and such. Good stuff.

The cost of the boots is $160. Kinda steep, but worth it for a really good pair of boots. I used a 20% off coupon however, so that brought it down to $128. Add on a $6 can of water repellent, and the total was $143.11 with tax. Enter dividend! I received a member dividend of $125.36 this year. That is huge! I have my REI visa to thank, mostly. 1% back on every gallon of gas I bought certainly padded my dividend a bit. So, the total I had to pay was $17.75, not bad for a brand new pair of hiking boots.

Of course nothing can go smoothly though. When I was originally rung up, the cashier applied the 20% off to the water repellent, saving me $1 instead of $32. That isn't anywhere near acceptable. But, I caught it before even leaving the door, and they were all kinds of accommodating, so it worked out in the end. I applied the first coat of waterproofing a few minutes ago. Now I just need to wait for it to dry, probably apply a second, and then let that cure... I guess in a few days I will be able to wear them. Good thing I don't have anything going for a bit.

Well, since i posted about wanting to run the SLC marathon, I have done quite a bit of thinking. And that thinking has led me to decide not to run the SLC marathon. I'll pretend I haven't mentioned this before, just for fun.

Why though? It would be so much "fun". Here's why.

Well, I decided I wanted to get out once more and bag a few peaks. But I didn't feel like doing a whole lot. So I drove up to Guardsman Pass with Jason, Char, and Curt from SP, and did a few peaks from there. I did unnamed peak 10,420 and also Guardsman peak. They are the two peaks on either side of Guardsman Pass, Both are over 10,000 feet and on the list of Salt Lake County's 32 highest peaks. The weirdest part was probably doing 10420, returning to the car, and then going the other way to Guardsman. But it was only 7 minutes from the car to summit on the second peak, so whatever. Like I said, I didn't feel like doing a whole lot...

So point is, I changed the "summitposer" drop down up in the menu to include some ticklists that I am working on, including the Salt Lake County - 32 Highest list. Today I officially hit the halfway point on that list. YAY! Maybe I'll actually complete a ticklist one of these days...

It was such a beautiful day outside, we needed to get out. So when Char came over and said "What are you doing inside on such a day as this" (paraphrased), I said "Let's go climbing". So, we did. We threw some gear together and took off up Little Cottonwood Canyon. I wanted to climb Crescent Crack, a climb I (am/thought I was) familiar with. It was my first TRAD lead back a few years ago, so I figured it would be a good place to get back to. My climbing went fairly well in some fashions, but not so good in others. A few things I did well were that I remained very calm on lead, something I was rarely able to do in the past. I took things a lot more slow than I did in the past. I used to try to rush through the climb, over gripping my holds, and losing strength. Also, I was a lot better at keeping my cool at the protection placing times. Instead of thinking with emotions "dang, if I fall before I get this piece in and clipped, that's gonna suck" which is generally a bad thing, I thought "You're in a good solid stance, so take your time and look for a good placement. That looks like a good spot for a nut. Yeah, that's solid. Should I use a draw? Hmm.. a longer runner might be better to prevent rope drag from popping the piece."



Anyway, it was good. However, halfway up the second portion of the climb I decided to call it quits and build an anchor and let Jason finish leading the pitch. So, he lowered me and I belayed him up to my anchor on top rope. He then Led the rest of the pitch and set a real anchor. Then, he belayed Char up from the top. She did pretty dang good for her first time.

So, I've lost the will to write much more, so... it's over