Return to Canadia

I'm back in Canadia, the land of Moose, maple syrup, and lots and lots of rain.....no, thats unfair, as its no worse than home. Where did I leave off again? Ah yes, the Bishop Starbucks....

After that rest day I think I had another 2 days climbing. Well, one and a half really as my elbows fully gave up the ghost on the Thursday. Managed the snappily titled Dale Bard classic "Green Wall Centre" that day though, which more than made up for any decreased capacity afterwards. Doing that problem was the highlight of my stay in Bishop for a couple of reasons: the Green Wall was the very first bit of rock I climbed on when I arrived; the problem is a V6, footwork intensive, crimpy, vertical wall (i.e. everything I'm shit at); its the hardest problem on the wall (regardez moi...); and it was the last problem on that wall that I hadn't done. A nice way to finish off the last real climbing day. Did a couple of V0's the following day, but my elbows were screaming for mercy, so I took off north.

The stay in Bishop was great, and I'll definitely be back. I felt like I was climbing well (barely campussed anything!), moving efficiently, able to commit positively to moves high off the deck, doing things quickly, and generally feeling pretty competent at the old climbing thing. Hopefully I can transfer that over to trad (why is it that I'm much less scared of decking from 7 or 8m onto pads than taking a 2m fall on a route?). I learned that my footwork isn't really that bad, I just need to think a bit more than talented people do. I also learned that 2 weeks of bouldering is probably about enough for me in any one go.

After bailing from Bishop I spent a lovely couple of days sloper-shuffling in Squamish, but on the second day the thought occurred that I was bored. Honestly, bored! The realisation was slightly disconcerting as I love bouldering, and its by far the climbing discipline I'm best at. But its not the be all and end all. The inklings of boredom had been brewing in Bishop, but I still had some objectives. In Squamish the feeling struck home. I felt like I was wasting time pissing about on little rocks and missing the point, while the Chief loomed enticingly....

So I packed the truck and fucked off back to Daves place in Vancouver, where I'll be living on the couch for the next while. Turns out I'll be working in Vancouver for the first 2 months, then up in the Yukon from June to September. Suits me down to the ground really. Cheap rent, not too for from work, got a membership to this place (which is almost as good as Gravity), and work doesn't start til the 9th. So I have next week to piss about, then 2 months of weekend warrior-ing in Squamish. The plan is to do as many of the aid and long free routes on the Chief as possible, both as an end in itself and as training for Yosemite in October (as well as work my balls off when not climbing to amass as much money as I can!). Quite psyched to get in mileage and try to improve as a climber while I have access to rock and facilities. Training can wait til the Yukon, where I imagine there'll be shite all else to do.

Was going to throw some pictures up, but it turns out that I'm a lazy git (shock). And the good ones ("good" relative to the rest of the crap ones I took, not by any objective measure of quality) are already on facebook. I daresay most of the folk likely to read this have already seen them, but for the stalwart few who have resisted the joys of social media (e.g. Dave Flanagan :-) ), here you go.... 

Peace out