The Return of the Kalymnian Wall Wrastlers

Meet the Kalymnian Wall Wrastling Heroes

(Di, K-love, Wonder Womb'n, Eric the Great, Me, WAG)

Our mission, to successfully conquer sector after sector of endless tufa laden walls, to recklessly scooter rally around the island with frequent stops at mythos watering holes, to bravely sight-see in Turkey and consume fried cheese in between the consumption of countless Gyro's.

During our 3-week stay on the Greek island of Kalymnos we choose to fuel our super hero rock wrastling skills by local Kalymnian favorites such as:

Kaly Thyme Honey

Staples - Breakfast, Lunch and/or Dinner

Dalmades

He (WAG) could of ate them every day
The Feta Stuffed Squid

Shoe Tree
A Fatolitis memorial to those attempting to conquer the TUFA

Over-head X-ray Vision
a superpower we first discovered in 2010 - A belayer's dream come true

WAG discovers his Kryptonite
falling tufa at the Secret Garden

Di's Secret Weapon
The Celebratory Kung Fu Kick after Crushing Lucky Strike 5.12b

K-Love Conquers the TUFA Pipes of
Carpe Diem 5.10c

Me Barely Smiling on the Popular Polished Pockets of
Atena 5.10d

Di Defying Gravity on
Dirlanda 5.12c

WAG Methodically Battles through the TUFA Forest of Priapos for 45 Minutes
Priapos 5.12d
 

Me Planning the Asault on the TUFA Curtains of
Steps Ahead 5.12a

After the departure of Wonder Womb'n and Eric the Great the rest of us were left with an secondary yet very important mission...The recovery of Wonder Womb n's hat.  It was believed that some of the locals had taken the hat and were seen around town posing for pictures with the infamous hat.

The Longtime Protector of the Afternoon Sector: Billy Goat Gruff
Pulled the WW hat from a climbing pack

A local Sponge Exporter:  Sponge Bob Grey Pants
offered facial sponges to the ladies in an attempt to keep the WW hat

 

The Talkative Corner Shop Dude
K-love exchanges a hug and her ear for the return of the WW hat 

K-Love recovers Wonder Womb'ns Prized Position

Me on a Victory Lap After our Recovery of WW's hat

WAG's best Impression of the Kalymnian Crime Thugs who tried to take WW's hat

Till Next Time Kaly

Telendos Island from Poets Wall

Me Storming the Kastelli Castle

K-Love Peacefully Posing on Kastelli Castle

Old Climbering Grounds & Brotherly / Motherly Surprises

Yup that's right, old stomping grounds: the crazy conglomerate of El Rito, New Mexico.  Little ol El Rito was anything but quiet this past week.  I remember coming here to climb on weekends and nearly having the whole crag to ourselves, perhaps it was the recent feature in Climbing magazine.  Kinda cool to see the area getting some recognition.  El Rito rocks! and don't forget to visit the nearby Ojo Caliente mineral springs and spa on that rest day:)    

In between climbing / camping stints at El Rito Kristin and I traveled a little further south on 5/13 to Santa Fe for a special surprise.  We orchestrated a perfect UN-discoverable surprise...or we thought:)  See, May 13 is my brothers birthday, which also happened to be Mother's day this year:)  Dad was to convince the two of them it was a simple trip to Santa Fe to celebrate the joint b-day / m-day.  It almost worked.  It turned out mom had a slight tip off to the surprise (Dad discussing the surprise with me over the tele....with mom sitting right next to him)  Sean had no idea so we batted a 0.500 on 5/13.

Dad took them both to the Marble brewery taproom overlooking the Santa Fe plaza for a midday brew-ski. At this time we called them on their cell phones to wish them a happy days, after a few words we then walked into room to two really BIG smiles:)         

The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi

Our Lady of Guadalupe

If only she was this surprised when we walked in

Sean n Ol Johnny Cash (his favorite musician)

My Darling Smile

Pops @ Marble

Second Street Brewery - Next visit , McQuade's to CO

Staying dry during an El Rito hail storm

The Scoop - ya thats right the only down skirt being worn in NM....EVER?

2 in the Snow, 2 on the Rock - RMNP, Cameron Pass & Shelf Road

As most of you snow snobs probably know all to well by now, our winter playground has stunk this season! Kristin and I have only been out two times:(  At this point last year, we had countless tours under our boards.  Its been kinda of rough... well except one bright side to the warmer temps has been the continuation of climbing.

The two tours this season have been:

1. "Terrain Park Area" near Hallett Peak, RMNP

• Cant wait to go back to RMNP, there are some awesome terrain opps: a favorite being Little AK near Knobtop peak.  
• GPS Tracks (google maps)

Dragon Tail Couloir w tracks
click to enlarge

1. Montgomery Bowl, Cameron Pass

• This past Sunday Kristin, Drew and I cruised up to Cameron Pass after a much needed storm, for what we where hoping would be some good turns.  Not bad at all!  Finally 
• GPS Tracks (google maps)

Montgomery Bowls highlighted w tracks
click to enlarge

Hallett Peak on left and Dragontail couloir on right: RMNP
a line for the early spring if  we ever get snow

1 of 4 huge bucs seen in Estes Park after our tour in RMNP

Cameron Pass Sector: from top of Montgomery Bowl near Diamond Peak

After getting some much needed turns in on Sunday we returned to Golden to switch out splitty's for climbing gear.  We then spent Monday and Tuesday climbing Shelf in 60 degree weather.  Ha I even returned with a farmers tan!

Kristin on Once Upon A Time 5.11a

K on Gen X ation 5.11a

Pre rock wrestling concentration

Noteworthy Sends:

Gen X ation 5.11a

• OS

Next posts will include the following adventures: Costa Rica, followed by AK, then climbing somewhere, then a yurt trip in the San Juans of CO, then AK again:)

Season Lasts - Shelf Road, Buffalo Creek

We kicked off the last week of November with some catch phrase and sour cream apple pie at the Lansing's for what was an amazing Thanksgiving dinner.  A few days later we crushed some stone down at Shelf Road for a few days in what turned out to be the falls best weather for climbing, low 60's and nothing but sun.  We left shelf wondering if it was the final climbing trip of the year, especially with the snow starting to accumulate.  The final day of our off week we went up to Buffalo Creek for some amazing singletrack.  I love Buffalo Creek!

Buffalo Creek:

Remnants of High Meadows Fire of 2000 - Does make for some awesome singletrack

 

Granite Moab - Buffalo Creek area offers a lot of rock features and sections of trail strictly on rock

Survivors

Camo - Where's Kristin?

Shelf Road:

Muscle Beach 5.11a/b - A Vaino Kodas, Bob D'Antonio masterpiece 2001

Noteworthy Sends:

Morpheus 5.11b

• OS

Muscle Beach 5.11a/b

• OS

Shelf Road ' N

A campsite filling group of us traveled down south for 4 days of climbing on Shelf's always impressive limestone.

The crew - Jerm, Lisa, Ryan'o, J-Rock, mua, Kster

Shelf Road: Nearing 1000 vertical pocketed routes on bulletproof limestone.  Shelf probably sits #3 on my list of favorite limestone crags visited this year.  (Spearfish, Ten Sleep, Shelf)  One great attribute of Shelf is however the possibility for winter climbing.

Newly released Shelf guidebook: Bob D. Antonio (2010).  I believe this is book #3 or #4 published for the area. This new release is the first to contain all shelf crags and to utilize color photos. Warning: There have been a few reported errors in the guide. One such example exists on the Spiney Ridge section of the guide book and involves two classic routes: Toxxxic Entertainment (5.10a) and Purple Toe Nails (5.11c).  The route tracing drawn/transposed over the color photo are shifted.  Making Purple Toe Nails look like its neighbor Toxxxic Entertainment.  The error caused me to jump on Purple Toe Tails instead of Toxxxic Entrainment as warm up number two for the morning.  In fear of not on-sighting a 5.10a as the flash pump reached painful levels I thankfully reached the anchors.  After reaching the ground and grasping my forearms in embarrassment, I was greeted by another couple saying "Nicely done, that's a hard route"  I responded "that's the hardest fn 10a I have ever done"!  "NO NO You just on-sighted Purple Toe Nails a classic 5.11c"  Thank goodness I was just about to go back to camp and drink beers.  Anyway heads up with the new guidebook:)
        

Cactus Cliff - A popular colder weather crag

K on Urban Fringe (5.10d)

Ryan on LaCholla Jackson (5.9)

Me on Funkdemental (5.11b)

Ryan on Ga-Stoned Again (5.9)

Noteworthy Sends:

Funkdemental 5.11b

• FL

Purple Toe Nails 5.11c

• OS