Utah Bouldering

Returning to a great climbing area after a long period of time has passed is always interesting. Arriving in Joe's Valley after almost 10 years conjured up memories of the place that had been long suppressed. Memories of my cross country journey's as a young lad with my dog Ira and my friends Josh, Phil, Nadeau, and Watson rushed through my mind. Details of certain boulders, trails, and trees resurfaced from deep within my memory banks and made it seem like it was yesterday that I last visited. As a climber it is always nice to return and to complete climbs/boulder problems that had been to difficult in the past. Revisiting a place and climbing things that were far to challenging in the past can certainly leave you feeling as if you have progressed in your craft,which is always nice!

In other ways it's somewhat tough to come back to these places after such a long time, as for me it makes me think about where the past 10 years of my life have gone. It's a reminder of the fact that I am getting older and those care free days of traveling , sleeping in the dirt, and living on tuna fish and pasta are long gone. So in some ways revisitation of these places are revisitations of my past which lead me to question my present. Questions about where I would be in life had I been a little more focused on things other than climbing rocks. While climbing in Joe's I began to analyze the amount of energy in which I have put into climbing a rocks, and began to wonder about the bazillion other things this energy could have been applied to.

Thinking about this put me in sort of a dark place for a bit, and I do not think it should have! In the end I truly believe that the rich experiences I have had as a climber, the people I have met, and journey's that climbing has taken me on have made me who I am today. The memories I have accumulated through my years of traveling and climbing are priceless. Although I am without a lot of money, a house with a white picket fence, or a fancy car, I still feel as fortunate as any!No amount of money or material objects can replace the great times that I have been lucky enough to have!

The current battle is now to find a way to stay active as a climber while continuing to dedicate the appropriate amount of time to creating Art!

Well then, let me end this rant and share a little video that my friend Will and I put together while climbing in Utah:

Utah Classics from w w on Vimeo.

Joe's Valley

The Scrawny and The Brawny

The Worm Turns

River Joe's Valley

Joe's Valley

Will on Smokin Joe's during a night session

 For the past week we have been bouldering in Joe's Valley Utah. We have set up a camp in the left fork of the valley not far from the boulders and the weather has been great. Temperatures for bouldering have been slightly slightly warm during the day, but perfect at night,  so we purchased a cheap lantern and have been climbing a lot at night.  I first visited Joe's valley  as a young lad in 1998  on one of my first cross country journey's, and then again in 2000 not long after Ben Moon's first ascent of Black Lung.  It's always fun for me to revisit area's that I had not been to in such a long time, to succeed on some of the blocs that I flailed on in the past, and to see  some of the current test pieces and projects. 

From Colorado to Utah

The weather just didn't pan out!!!!

Snow and Ice in Emerald Lake

Pete Thizzin

Liv on Far Left El Jorge

Will on Golden Rows

Rob on The Aristocrat

The Tourist Stopping Elk of RMNP

 The high hopes in which I had to do a lot of climbing in Chaos Canyon were dampened a bit by the weather. With lots of rain, cold temps, and snow it seemed that we were resting a lot more than climbing. The snow seemed to hit early this year in Colorado, burying the boulders under a sheet of ice and snow. Good times for skiers, but bad times for climbers.  So we decided to bail, loaded up the truck and headed for sunny Joe's Valley Utah.

  Although things did not pan out the way we had hoped the visit to Colorado was still a lot of fun. It was great to spend some time in the mountains, see some old friends, and to climb on some of the boulder problems that  I had always wanted to try. 

Photos 9/25/09

RMNP Photos 1

Equipped with my new Canon G10 I set out for a day of hiking in the park today. The G10 is by far the  best camera I have owned , and I am eager to learn how to use it. Although I do not rely on photographic reference for the basis of my illustrations, I have come to realize the importance of photos and how they help to inform my paintings.  So I am posting a few of the shots I took while hiking in RMNP today, I hope they will lead to some new paintings in the near future.

Rocky Mountain National Park

RMNP

Chaos Canyon home to some of the best bouldering in the world!

Will on Veritas V11

Veritas V11

For the past seven weeks I have been living in the Bay Area California, working with my friend Will restoring an old Victorian house in West Oakland, while trying to train for a rock climbing trip to Colorado. In the last week we finished most of the work on the house, packed our bags and made the 20 hour drive to Este's Park Colorado . It has been many years since I last climbed in Rocky Mountain National Park and I am super excited to see how the boulder problems that I tried years ago now feel. With snow showers and rain the weather has been a bit grim, but despite the poor weather we have managed to climb on some amazing blocs. The weather is supposed to clear in the next few days and I hope that in between climbing that I can make time for some en plein air painting in the park. For now here's a few shots taken in the last few days here in RMNP.

Dungeon Training

Beast sketch .1

Beast .2

Final Beast sketch

Finished image, Photoshop

I recently created a logo for my friend Will's blog, Dungeon Training. Shown here are the rough sketches of the troglodyte beast character, as well as the finished image.

Random Sketches 2

Thai man

David Grove

Chef

troll

waitress

norton

flying machine

dragon

I am bored so I am posting some random sketches.

Some new some old, some for work some for play.