Rock Craft

Used up, rusty, old climbing toys

Without the hard work of many inspired climbers, climbing would not be a "sport". After nearly a decade of climbing, today marks the first route I have bolted on my own. In between work and rain, my last two weeks have been devoted to this task. The fact that it is new, that it is my own, and it can be whatever I want it to be, is very exciting.

My perception of route development has been glorified by climbing books and movies. The old stone masters established routes in all the most spectacular areas of the country, and made climbing what it is today. As pioneers of the sport, they hold a mythical status in my mind. Yet, dangling in my harness with legs numb from lack of circulation, and my hands vibrating from hammering, I began to understand why they did it. Not for glory or building the sport, they established routes for the same reasons I was alone hanging on some forgotten rock in the middle of the woods. I was bolting because I saw a line that I wanted to climb. The payoff is a single moment when I can connect all the moves, and see my vision become a reality. Regardless, of who will climb the route after me, I pour myself into this project so that I can play. That is the only reason needed.

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Cast Iron Chef: Mushroom Challenge

"Baby Giant" Rowan is a baby giant

I had a lovely visit with my friends Will, Chrissy, and their son, Rowan. We capitalized on some nice weather to do a bit of climbing, had some good conversation about the nuances of relationships, and I had some quality time playing with "baby giant" Rowan. My favorite moment was early in the morning when I heard Rowan outside my door asking, "Uncle Colbin?" (that's how my name comes out of a two year old's mouth). When I responded, he promptly jumped up on the bed and joined Megan and I in our sea of down comforters. Megan (who I have never seen so awake at 8am) said, "I love Uncle Calvin. Don't you?" Rowan agreed, and the two of them promptly smothered me with kisses. It was the sweetest type of good morning anyone could ask for.

Will, in the incubation room at Sno-Valley Mushrooms

Not only did I get some good baby kisses, but Will also delivered a couple pounds of gourmet mushrooms from his farm, Sno-Valley Mushrooms, in Duvall, WA. This prompted a series of cooking experiments that I have been calling "the Cast Iron Chef Challenge". With a few pounds of lion's mane and blue oyster mushrooms I created some amazing meals that I am dying to share. Compared to the button mushrooms you find at the grocery store, these toadstools have a strong meaty flavor and some amazing medicinal properties. Research suggests that lion's mane supports the immune system against certain types of cancer, and may be used to treat nerve damage related to Alzheimer's and dementia. I could write a whole article about the special powers of mushrooms, but, for now, I will focus on their power to make amazing food.

Of the meals I prepared with these specialty mushrooms my favorite was Lion's Mane Alfredo. I went all out, using fresh spinach fettuccine from Bellingham Pasta and heavy cream from Twinbrook Creamery, to produce the type of dinner you might find in a 5 star restaurant. Check out mushroom-appreciation.com for the recipe I used, and interesting facts about mushrooms. I want to urge you, dear reader, to look beyond the button mushroom and portabella and experiment with some of the more exotic fungi at your local grocer (or what you can find hiding in the woods). You may discover unparalleled richness of flavor and texture.

Rather than copy and paste the Lion's Mane Alfredo recipe, I will share one I made from scratch. With my trusty cast iron, I have made frittatas for every meal of the day. Using blue oyster mushrooms (also shown to have cancer fighting and antibacterial properties) this recipe made an amazing breakfast and can be prepared entirely in one pan.

A colorful, well balanced, and complete meal with almost no clean up

• Begin by preheating the oven to 375 degrees farenheit
• On the stove top, warm up your cast iron pan with a tablespoon of coconut or olive oil on medium/high heat (if it starts smoking it is too hot)
• Fry two medium sized potatoes washed and cut in 1cm cubes, for 7 minutes or until tender; stirring often
• Add a half pound of breakfast sausage breaking it up with a metal spatula. Also add mushrooms, chopped into 1in pieces, and half an onion, diced. Cook until sausage is brown, stirring often.
• Mix in a couple handfuls of spinach, and remove from heat.
• Beat 6 eggs and pour over mixture.
• Season with garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper
• Put the cast iron in the oven for 10 minutes or until egg is firm and beginning to brown
• Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, serve and enjoy (be careful not to burn yourself on the cast iron!)

You can go crazy with fritatta and add just about anything. Comment with your favorite fritatta and mushroom creations.

Dirty South

My first Red Rock Spring Break

I have been doing more climbing than working this month. It is everything I want, yet, there is a temptation to feel like I “ought to” be getting my life in order. Will I regret accomplishing my climbing goals in lieu of saving for retirement...? nah

I did not get a position with Teach for America. This was disappointing, but I feel like it is a chance to find teaching opportunities outdoors and not change fields. How this will come together is to be seen. Perhaps, the new climbing gym in town will be ready for me to develop a climbing school. For the time being, I am excited about working with my hands and learning a trade.

Tomorrow, I leave for Red Rock, NV and hope to climb a few routes I have been enchanted with for years. There is no better place for sunshine and long difficult routes.

The following sequence was from my last trip to Chattanooga where Megan and I discovered some fantastic climbing. Her parents joined us for a day of exploration at nearby Deep Creek. A lovely trail leads through the woods, across a river, and to a dramatic sandstone cave. We even found something we could climb in the rain and snow.

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Gear Review: Carabiners

Clipping bolts and hanging out
in El Potrero Chico, Mexico

Finding the right carabiner may not be the most important decision a climber makes, but it may be the most complicated. With a wave of new designs reaching the market, I want to share my observations of the ubiquitous aluminum clip.

Climbers have different demands and anatomy, thus I offer this as a guide, not a definitive ranking. As the trend towards small and light equipment has pushed some carabiners to comic proportions, a couple specific criteria have been considered. The primary qualities I am looking for are how well a carabiner will clip (depending on the type of the gate and the size of the gate opening) and how much it weighs. There are a too many carabiners on the market to review them all, so I have focused on those that are most common or most progressive.

Black Diamond OZ vs DMM Alpha Trad

 Extra small:

• Metolious FS Mini - gate opening 17m, weight 25g
• CAMP Nano - gate opening 21mm, weight 23g
• Old Black Diamond OZ - gate opening 22mm, weight 28g

Midsize wiregate:

• Trango Superfly - gate opening 26mm, weight 30g
• Mammut Moses - gate opening 25mm, weight 27g
• Black Diamond Neutrino - gate opening 22mm, weight 36g
• Camp Photon - gate opening 28m, weight 29g

Petzl Ange L vs DMM Alpha Trad

Solid gate, clean nose:

• Black Diamond Positron - gate opening 26mm, weight 49g
• Old Petzl Spirit - gate opening 20mm, weight 49g
• 2013 Petzl Spirit - gate opening 25mm, weight 39g

Wiregate, clean nose:

• DMM Alpha Light - gate opening 25mm, weight 28g
• DMM Alpha Trad - gate opening 27mm, weight 34g
• Petzl Ange L - gate opening 26mm, weight 34g
• Wild Country Helium - gate opening 27mm, weight 34g
• Black Diamond HoodWire - gate opening 24mm, weight 37g
• 2013 Black Diamond OZ - gate opening 22mm, weight 28g 

So, what does this all mean?

I categorized carabiners according to general similarities. Some noteworthy technical notes are marked in red, because I think it illustrates a glaring weakness.  I marked my favorite pieces from each category in blue, according to statistics and personal experience.

For recreational climbers: Consider cheaper midsize wiregate or solid gate carabiners. Find a color you like, avoid the extra small carbiners unless you have extra small hands, and you can't really go wrong.

For Avid climbers/gear heads: You get what you pay for. More expensive gear ages better and is less likely to become obsolete.  Variation in craftsmanship between brands is significant. The gate action on an old, well used Petzl or DMM carabiner is much snappier and consistent than on an old Black Diamond or CAMP carabiner. As far as innovation goes, most manufacturers are moving in the same direction, but that does not mean they are equal. For example, I recently picked up a new, clean nose Black Diamond OZ. I was impressed with the elegant design, but the gate action is is more difficult the further it is pulled back. My temptation to pick up a pile of sexy new BD 'biners quickly faded.

That's all for now. Comment with your favorite carabiner, and have fun out there. My next climbing trip will be to Chattanooga, TN. Look for a trip report in March.

Cast Iron Chef: Brie and Eggplant

I feel the need to share this recipe far and wide. I found eggplant on sale and took on the Iron Chef Challenge of making something edible with it.

With a little help from my 'ol cast iron, I may have discovered the most savory midday treat ever created.

Before I launch into my recipe, I want to share a little lesson on choosing and preparing eggplants. Not all eggplants are created equal. Male eggplants tend to have more seeds and can be more bitter than their female counterparts. Inspecting the naval on the bottom of your eggplant will reveal its gender. Not unlike certain parts of the human anatomy, a female has an elongated slit, a male's is more circular.

A friend pointed out that it is easy to typecast the eggplant and never realize the potential of this bulbous purple veggie. They do not need to be soaking in oil or covered in marinara sauce to taste good. In fact those two things should be avoided altogether. I recommend prepping eggplant by the following technique.

• Rinse eggplant, remove stem, and chop into 1/2in cubes. 
• Warm a pan to med/high heat and fry in 1 tbsp oil. 
• Cook for 15 minutes turning often and adding another 1 tbsp oil. 
• Eggplant is ready when all pieces are soft and somewhat transparent.

Now down to the business. To copy this masterpiece and feed two or three people the most amazing mid-day snack know to man, you will want:

• A Female Eggplant
• Hummus Spread (I like garlic Sabrasa)
• Bread
• Brie 
• Coconut or Olive Oil
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Fresh Arugula or Baby Spinach

To achieve bread and topping bliss. Follow these steps:

1. Cook eggplant (as described above)
2. Slice brie into 1/8in wide strips and lay across one slice of bread.
3. Pile warm eggplant on bed of cheese.
4. Heap leafy greens on top, and splash with balsamic vinegar.
5. Spread hummus on other slice of bread and slam it onto the savory mound, thus completing the celebrated eggplant brie sandwich.
6. ENJOY!

The Question of Hope

In the past couple months, I have begun a number of blog posts that never fleshed out or made it beyond a free form writing exercise. Forgive me, dear reader, for not having the thoroughness and humility to share these musings. This serves as a metaphor for my life right now. Unrealized, unsure, discontent, my life doesn't have the same flare and sex appeal of a wandering climber philosopher. I am in transition. I assist a carpenter for a living, spend a lot of time at home, and often wonder "what next?"

I don't have an answer to this question, but I have hope. I am confident that I will find my way. I have hope, because I have love, health, and freedom.

Looking at all that I have accomplished in the last year, I see so much positive momentum. Reflecting on my relationships, the dreams I have realized as a climber, and as a young man. Yet, there are times when I am working away at some mindless task like masking ceilings or laying tile, and I think about what it means to be successful. Tiptoeing on a ladder as I tape plastic to a wall, I imagine my friends and family watching me and wonder; what would they think? Did I waste my time in college? Is my potential draining away?

These questions seem sort of depressing, but then I remember a list of 100 dreams I wrote for English class when I was in high school. Next to graduating college, and learning martial arts, building my own house is something I have always wanted to do. So here I am, learning how to run a table saw, because it is one step in a long complicated journey. The path ahead of me is a great mystery, but it is my mystery, my adventure. In my meditation, picturing my loved ones, I see them smile, and I know they see reasons to be proud of me. So, my hope keeps me going. This week I am going to learn how to install wood floors, and after that, who knows? Hopefully, I get to see another week.

A Palette for Fear

Scary memories from my last big aid climb

Hiking in to the base of Mt. Moroni, in Zion Canyon, I was uneasy about my intended climb, Crack in the Cosmic Egg. I am nearing the end of a long climbing trip, I have had many successful climbs, seen some amazing places, and I was aware in a shift in my anticipation. I was concerned about getting hurt, I was not looking forward to balancing on tiny hooks and cams to ascend the thousand-foot wall, and I simply didn’t have my heart in it. I didn’t share any of this with my partner, BJ, but he had commented on my extra attention to the gear list, and my lack of sleep. I agreed to take the harder pitches and left the ground, despite my misgivings. I managed to place a small piece of protection in the first ten feet, but I was gripped. Teetering over a piece of gear in the crack not wider than a couple of quarters, I lost my cool. My breath was shallow, my leg was shaking, and I felt scared. I have climbed dozens of long, hard routes in Zion, been in situations where a fall could kill me, and have always prided myself for being headstrong. Now, back in the place where I had learned how to really climb, I was falling apart. I reached up to an edge I hoped would be better, shuffled my feet to regain balance, and then I fell. I fell when I should not have. I had enough time to think “I am falling and I am going to get hurt,” as I watched my protection (a size zero TCU) shift and buckle as the rope went taught. Somehow, it held my weight. I stopped softly 5 feet from the ground and by the look on my face, BJ knew to lower me quick before my fear was realized, and I got sent tumbling down the rock slope below.

Fear has many flavors. Looking up at Crack in the Cosmic Egg, beyond the hard moves that had just throttled me was four hundred feet of thin difficult aid climbing, and it put a bad taste in my mouth. I spent a moment trying to control my breathing, and working to stop my hands from shaking, but I couldn’t get rid of the fear. It was a new flavor to me, it was unlike the fear that pushes me to fight on and focus on every tiny handhold above an old rusted bolt, or fear of getting stuck on a wall at night. There is fear that sharpens my edge, but watching the sunrise in Zion at the base Mt. Moroni, I felt dull.

I spoke with BJ about all this. It is an experience I think all people face from time to time. We have off days, we fall short of our expectations, and we can be very hard on ourselves. A friend told me she was proud of me for honoring the fear, and I see it as an important seasoning experience as a climber. I have been on the other side of this many times, telling people to readjust their expectations, but it is not easy. I like being the guy who can climb anything, anytime, anywhere, but I have to recognize my limits.

There are many reasons for feeling off, the accumulation of emotional stress from other parts of my life, the reality of not being able to always perform at my best, and simply not being motivated. It acts as a reminder to not be too hard on myself, to trust my heart, and to focus on the journey and not the destination.

BJ and I spent a fair bit of time talking, at the base of the route, from climbing to relationships, it seems that this experience has some far reaching lessons. Finally, we packed up and went out for a fun climb on the other side of the park (a 5.7 on Checkerboard Mesa) that still had some tense moments, but also a great deal of laughter and amazing terrain. I came back in one piece, got some quality time with a dear friend, and was able to explore new emotional and physical terrain.

Zion has an amazing power to confront people with their fears, and seems to reveal one's true nature. I for one, am humbled, inspired, and grateful for my experience here.

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