Sunday, February 19, 2012

Cheap Tents Blog Interview

Daniel from Cheap Tents Blog posts interviewed me about my climbing a couple months ago. Check it out and pass it around to anyone that would be interested!

Cheap Tents Interview Link


Hope you enjoy!

Pan Flutes & High Flukes

I recently received a grassroots sponsorship from Evolv. Evolv makes some of the greatest climbing shoes in the market. Legendary Chris Sharma uses their shoes so that means they can't be that bad ;-). Over the next year I'll be testing out their shoes and giving out reviews on the internet and also directly to the company. I am honored to be apart of their team and look forward to the coming months of using their shoes, crash pads, and other gear.

I'v been training hard back home in Syracuse, New York at The Wall. We've been getting some great bouldering routes set their by Andy Freeman and Brian Caha. The snow and cold weather is still hindering the chance of the climbing season to start early, so I'v came out to arizona to get on some rock.

 I met my friend and climber Kyle Knoll in Sedona, we decided we would give a go at Mars Attacks 5.8 II.
Neither of us had ever climbed on sandstone and we were a little curious to see how we would hold up compared to other places. We bushwhacked and scrambled our way to the base of the climb due to having no idea where the trail was we figured we'd just head in the direction of the rock formation that resembled Mars Attacks. Luckily we were right and we soon racked up and began climbing.

I lead the first slab pitch, originally this pitch went at 5.6 but because its sandstone and the route has seen a lot of traffic recent debate is that it goes at 5.9+. I thought it was 5.8 slab, either way it was a scary introduction to sand stone haha. After the first pitch Kyle took the lead to traverse 120 feet right on the 5.8 2nd pitch. Meeting him at the belay I racked up and took on Pitch 3 (5.6) this crack-chimney pitch brought me back to my days in the Red River Gorge, there were pockets, pinches and underclings everywhere, then it would go to 30 feet of pure crack climbing. It was an amazing pitch to say the least.

While belaying Kyle up the third pitch and gazing out across to Devils Bridge, Capitol Butte, and the Sonoran desert I began to hear a faint sound of a pan flute. The sound of the flute brought me into the moment and strangely relaxed me completely. I was able to just BE. I stood on the 4 foot ledge and took in everything the world could give me at that moment. Kyle arrived at the belay and the flute stopped. We charged up the last "5.9" pitch (more like 5.8) and set up the rappel. While Kyle began rappelling down, the pan flute started up again. I really enjoyed who ever it was playing the pan flute. It was amazing to hear it but not know where it was coming from, I once again came fully into the present moment. It was a great addition to the climb. "Off Rappell" yelled Kyle, I breathed deeply, gazed out to take in the big red rock walls of Sedona and began my decent back down to society.


Mars Attack was an amazing climb. I recommend it to anyone who travels to Sedona to go climbing. The route was just purely amazing, adding all the pitches together you really can't get such a great classic.

I'm headed to go climb in Queen Creek in a couple days. Im psyched to get down there as well and see how i match up on their sport climbs as well as some of the trad routes.