Bouldering in the Pordre Canyon

I have lived in Fort Collins, My whole life which is OK with me because there is so much good climbing so close to my home. Rotary Park, Arther's Rock, the Poudre Canyon, and of course Rocky Mountain National Park. Climbing is my passion and for years I have enjoyed the many areas close to my house, but after a while you want something new, something that you can call yours. Which take me to what I'm really talking about. Monkey Foot, which is a boulder problem that my brother and I found well camping in the Poudre Canyon. At first I did not think there was a line that could be done, but thanks to the creativity of my brother (Ben) and my Friend (James) we managed to find an amazing line. What I was looking at was my new found project. When I first tried it I knew it was above my ability but knew it would go down with some training. After finding Monkey foot one of my good climbing friends call me up and wanted to drive to Bishop for a week of crushing. So I had to leave my new found problem and traveled to Bishop, CA which was one of the best trips of my life but, that's another story. After a week of cranking down in Bishop I came back with new found confidences, and drove back up the Poudre hoping to crush!  There was a lot of snow on the ground and had to hike in knee deep snow but, nothing was going to stop me from my new love. After a few tries I was getting shut down on the same move over and over again but, my brother James found a hidden foot which unlocked the secret batta for sending. As soon as James unlocked the foot bata I sent, calling it Monkey Foot and V? This boulder problem is my proudest FA to date and would love to show any one where it is. call me (970) 443-3179

con-Graduations

One more off deck. Ian pressed through his graduation ceremony this weekend to finally actually be done with school. although he actually finished at semester, he can now share the short feeling of freedom that you attain when you accomplish something so major and yet so small at the same time. He is planing on crushing all the boulders around RMNP with James until the snow drives them out of town. On to Texas they'll roll, 3 months in the Tanks, and then who knows which way the wind will blow. Nationals? Worlds? Bishop?... school?... haha... Not, just go climbing.

Sray-cut-Spray

For a little more then a month now I'v been living out of the back of my car working up in Laramie, WY for Tiger Tree Land Management. Attempting to get a handle on the Western Pine Bark Beetle infestation that has spread to epidemic levels in the past years of drought and fire prevention, we cut and clear infested areas and spray healthy trees to prevent infestation. The insecticide we spray is non-harmful to mammals but decimates aquatic life all most instantly. So incidentally we are unable to save trees that chose the easy life and grew near any active water source. We work basically on an on-call schedule, or you could say, we work when its not windy, raining, freezing, or to much snow on the ground, but you must remember, this is Wyoming. Sometimes it seems like we would get better coverage if we stood in Utah and sprayed up in the air. My crew, the Green Sprayers, is made up of a great group of people, and we have a great time working together. Although right now were all spread out trying to get the U-dub campus sprayed. Lavaughn, our truck (the 550) supervisor from Utah is on his second summer with TTLM, and has worked in Alaska at a fish plant and in the oil fields around Wyoming, Funny dude, its awesome. Jeremy, from Tennessee got hired on the same time as me. He was in the Navy as a Coreman for seven years and has wife and two daughters, and being in the military he has more stories then you can shake a stick at. I'm probably going to laugh a few more years on to my life working with him. Rosanne, from Organ and the only girl on the working side of the business. She worked on the fire crew up in Organ for three summers and then did something for Verizon Wireless down in SoCal for a while, decided that California isn't for everyone and moved to the one and only great city of Fort Collins where she is in the process of trying to go to school. And of course Me, and i love my my job.