C-town.

Snapping random passersbys, this guy stuck out his tongue. It looks intentional, but while shooting, I didn't even notice. I was shooting pretty fast, so perhaps it was just a strange manner of yawning.

Chinese chess in the park. The problem with the cylindrical pieces with words inscribed on top is that you can't lean back and gain an understanding of which piece is where. So you have to stand on the bench to see what's going on. This is how they've played chess for thousands of years.

I'll have #25 please!

Working in Manhattan.

View from the my room at the New Yorker in midtown. The architectural abomination is the new New York Times building. I believe this was sunrise.




Friends from the office. The blurry hands were in the process of making the "blood" gang sign.




The mural above the Yokocho bar. Best damn martinis in town. They stir with cold ice, have Plymouth gin, and have bitters. Don't ever go there with more than four people because they will kick you out.

More bouldering at Calico Basin.

P pulling on Monkey Bars boulder.









Me showing poor foot cutting technique on the second half of a V9 "Monkey Direct", which was probably only a V3/4.
Sent one V6 next to it, which was my second V6 in Red Rocks.

Are You Prickly Or Are You Goo?

Thank you Chilly B for being so chill and letting me post in such a cool blog. Do not fear the Humacorn no more. I am here now!




(The truth is Chilly Breeze didn't know how to post a video, so he relegated to me the job of doing so. In spite of the highly risky annoyance of Humacorn making more appearances on the front page.)

Bellagio

Pic is via my motorola v3m's shitty lens of the lobby of the Bellagio Casino & Hotel. I went there last night to meet some Business Objects software vendors at the Fix Bar. A little cleaner and didn't have as much of a musty smokey stale smell as the Palms. One wing contains fancy purse and clothing stores like Gucci or whatever. I thought it was a good business model. In case somebody wins, they can then immediately redeposit the cash in some uber fancy retail outlet.

On the way out, I went to the ATM in the Bellagio. I've never seen withdrawal options starting at $200 and ending at $3,000. Now that's convenience. Oh yeah, they also wanted a $4 fee.

Black Corridor

My belayer, who was 6'4", magnanimously hung the draws. Very nice route that climbs well. Nothing awkward, just hard. Pic is me pinkpointing Livin' on Borrowed Time 5.11c. Also did Rebel without a Pause 5.11b, Dancin' with a God 5.10a (P felt it was a classic), plus three 5.9+ routes and one 5.7 with a very scenic view from the top. Even though the temperature was comfortable, the rock was freezing because the Black Corridor gets very little sun. Halfway through our visit, a family showed up with a portable crib that contained a crying baby and then they amplified their i-pod so everybody could enjoy their crappy-ass 90s music like Counting f-ing Crows.

The pink umbilical cord of life. P preparing for a very scenic 5.7.

Sunset at the second pullout. The yuccas must have seen the Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman.

Ramen in NYC

This was a bowl of tan-tan ramen at my favorite ramen place in the world, Men Kui Tei on 56th and 6th in Manhattan. Grumpy old man makes the gyoza. It goes good with some Sapporo beer. Although I have to say they chintzed me on the amount of pork in the tan-tan ramen. At the Men kui tei downtown, I got a heaping serving of spicy greasy ground pork. Here I just a got a spoonful. Still good stuff. It's sort of lonely eating ramen alone but a lot of people do it. Also I can't read the manga.

Buttermilks slides by P

This is Jedi Mind Tricks v3. I fell from there and missed the pad. My ankles are still cursing me. I must praise the Wolverine guidebook because it made finding this impressive highball quite easy for somebody who had never been there before. In the pic, it was probably around freezing temps so my right hand froze and went numb at that point. Then pop! On the ground with my knee giving me an uppercut. I felt like Ricky Hatton. But the "frozen hand" is no excuse for not "manning up". I bet Ricky Hatton would've beaten Mayweather if somebody just told him to "man up."

This is an interesting shot of an over-photographed problem. But I was amused by how far away the climber looks. It looks like a 50 foot traverse.

Hummingbird.

Today P witnessed a hummingbird outside our apartment. It's the first time she's ever seen one. Now she's trying to figure out a way to get it to come back.

Las Vegas Zoo

There's a pretty cool zoo 5 minutes from our place. They have roosters and chickens wandering free. Hope I didn't catch the bird flu.

Red Rocks - Kraft Boulders

It looks like he's handling my a$$ quite nicely. I need a better climbing photographer.


32oz of Diet Pepsi V4
Betty Boulder V2
Traverse into Potato Chips V4
Some nameless V3
Jones'in V4
Dusty Coffee V5 (flash - pic)
The Clam Bumper V4
The Shocker V2
Jenna's Jewelry V4
Monkey Up V4
The Prayer V6
Amazing Grace V4
The Offering Scam V1

I must be getting weak because those V4s felt hard. I don't know about the grades in the guidebook. In fact, I'm starting to lose my grasp on grades at this point. My personal grading system is now silence, grunt, growl, hissing exhale, scream. But sometimes the growl works better than the hissing.

Bishop trip report

Day 1
Get ass kicked on Iron Man Traverse. Leave blood on all the holds. The blue light is because the sun just set and I have no idea how to use a digital camera.



Day 2
Owens River Gorge:
Some 5.8s and 5.9 on the Great Wall of China. This is what somebody must have done with their machine gun after the heinous approach. I wanted to do the same.



Day 3
Happy Boulders
Serengeti V5
Solarium V3 (twice)
Rave V5 (stand start)
Hulk spits me off (pic)






Day 4
Buttermilks
Heidi V0 on the Honey Boulder (pic)
Bouquet V3 next to Heidi
Took 3 huge falls off of Jedi Mind Tricks V3 (dammit!)
Iron Man Traverse V4 (at last! - sadly, no photo or video of the send. Just like Masa.)
Sheepherder V2 on the Loaf