Sonnie and I are still tinkering away on the Prophet. Trotter is leading the charge. I think it’s really interesting to look at how the very best trad climbers operate on the sharp end. I would put Sonnie in a really small group of people I’ve climbed with that are truly built for hard, scary rock climbing. Skill plays a huge part. Strength plays a huge part. But an innate positivity is the biggest factor, I think. When the house of cards begins to collapse for me, I start losing the optimistic edge, and everything seems to spiral towards...

So turns out China is as far away as everyone says, and when you begin to freak out about the 14 hour flight there it’s warranted. Not necessarily because the flight is that impossible; enough wine, sleeping pills, and a neck pillow will sort you out. It’s all the time in between, plus the added/subtracted hours from your day that really mess you up. In the end you don’t know the day or where you are. And even though you were just on the plane for 14+ hours, you still struggle to remember how you got wherever you ended...

I have been living in Boulder, Colorado now for 3 months and throughout this time I have been looking for a project to really get me super psyched. After getting on several other 13+’s in the Boulder area I finally found a route that is exactly what I was looking for. My last trip to Shelf Road I focused on sending some of the hard classic 12‘s. This time, I focused all of my energy on Carnage 5.13d. Carnage is a really strikingly beautiful line up an amazing overhanging arete. It was first bolted by Mark Rolofson and sat...

I wrote about the "Astronautenfieber" in my last blog when I unfortunately didn't have the time to finish it off. I wouldn't call this one a proper highball but the 5 meter overhanging arete sure is high enough to pump up some adrenalin once you reach the crux. Anyways, motivation was high and I couldn't wait to get back on the rock again. A few days later I found myself just around the corner warming up on that classic slopy traverse. A couple of people were already trying the first moves of Astronautenfieber, so I couldn't resist the perfectly...

Sometimes it seems like conditions change from summer to winter overnight at Smith Rock in Central Oregon. We had a relatively warm October with temps about 10 degrees above average, with many warm, sunny days in the mid 60s. Now it is November and we have been getting some storms with overcast skies and temps in the 40s.

Austin, TX is where I live. I train at the Austin Rock Gym, and usually climb outside at Reimers Ranch, McKinney Falls, Enchanted Rock and sometimes the Green Belt. Austin, surprisingly, has lots of great climbing. It’s nothing compared to Waco Tanks or Rifle, but it’s still pretty good. Rock climbing outside in Austin is great in the winter but in the summer it’s problematic to climb in 100+ degree weather so I usually stick to the gym or Pace Bend (deep water, solo crag).The rock is mostly limestone pocket climbing along with granite at Enchanted Rock which is...