I have to post this 2...can one be so excited about being someone's aid bitch? A couple of advanced climbers will take me up on a big wall in April - Yosemite...I get to learn to jug up the line and clean aid! woohoo!

This will be my first snowboarding trip to Colorado ever! Janine and I will be staying in a ski in/out condo on the mtn.....this is Colorado's best year in 20...it will be so much better than the whistler trip last year. The only thing is, I get altitude sickness. The base is at 9700, and top is over 12,000. I'm pretty much useless at 11,000. I'm hoping that spending the night at about 9000 will be enough to adjust. Anyway, can't wait!

I'm taking some time off trad climbing...but check out this video of Dan Osman doing a speed freesolo at Lover's Leap.

www.ebaumsworld.com/videos/f...limb.html

The crazy dude was known for risky dyno moves with no rope.

Too bad he's dead.

As myself and my climbing partners progress into more moderate grades, I am noticing a sense of complacency regarding soloing the lower grades - 5.2 and below. Mike and I got 15 feet shy of the top of knapsack crack, and pretty much free-soloed the remainder of the pitch. We tried doing the climb in 2 pitches, but he had set-up belay 1 too low, and I didn't have enough rope to top out. Although the last 15 feet is easy climbing at 5.2, a fall would have ended in death (the top is about 300... read more

Highlights include ~

* Freezing our arses off sat getting on Hogsback too early

* Getting 10 feet off belay 1 on Harvey's Center and then 'umm, where do I put my feet?' It took about 10 minutes for me to get over it.

* Watching some loose blocks get kicked off by climbers on Deception. That climb is just dangerous.

* Helping out my partner's Russian friend, who first had to lower his wife and kid off Deception (his kid got sketched), and then helping him when he got sketched... read more