Monday, December 28, 2009

Christmas Photos

Our plans for Alabama fell apart...so here are some photos from the last few days. Today we did some cross training for a few hours - splitting wood.



Campus board training - working off too much pie

very hard after too much chocolate...

Krissy on the wall

Tess working on a chewy

Mom, Dad, and Tess

Tess after much fun in the snow

Tess and Josee meeting

Josee not impressed

Melissa making her first sushi roll

Our works of art

Sushi dinner

Josee relaxing - what she does best

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Skills Inventory 2nd Ascent Video

Here is a video Ghislain did of me making the second ascent of Skills Inventory (v8) in the LOC last weekend.

Zig TV Blog:
http://zigtv.blogspot.com/

(OT's - yes that's you Krissy, Ashley, and Vanessa - get back to work and stop procrastinating!)

Saturday, November 21, 2009

LOC Saturday Session

A few photos from our day out at LOC. This was probably one of the biggest groups of climbers I have ever been out there with. Really fun day!

Krissy finally got to climb with some girls. Thanks Kate and Jess - Krissy says you guys were very motivating.


Aidas at work


Kate in pain!


Mick on Loose Shoes (v5)


Nate on Tacky (v5)


The Gang


Krissy on Vedges (v3)


Ghislain on Skills Inventory (v8)


Ben on Skills Inventory (v8)


Skills Inventory (v8)


Ghislain taking i pod video


Krissy on Joe Boxer (v6)


Ben on a project...

Monday, November 16, 2009

Warning 8a.nu related - if you don't like it, stop reading now

During our Europe trip Krissy and I started logging our ascents on www.8a.nu. Seeing as we were traveling for quite a while we piled up quite a few routes and problems. 8a has a function that ranks you in your country, North America and the world. You can view just routes, boulders or combine the two. I deal with numbers all day, so here are some of the more interesting numbers I looked at. Basically it all means nothing, but it was interesting to see how close some of the numbers were between us.

Krissy
Canada
Boulder: 5
Route: 22
Combined: 7

North America
Boulder:32
Route:78
Combined:18

World
Boulder:71
Route:395
Combined:51

Ben
Canada
Boulder:4
Route:15 (at least a couple of women sport climb WAY harder!)
Combined:2

North America
Boulder:23
Route:77
Combined:18

World
Boulder:42
Route:422
Combined:50







Sunday, November 15, 2009

The Tombstone


Tombstone (V7) photo: Aidas Rygelis

Krissy and I also competed in the first of the 2009/2010 Canadian Tour de Bloc Bouldering competitions last weekend. It was a fun weekend. We had a small crew of climbers from Fredericton stay with us for the weekend. Krissy and I each ended up second in our categories. I was definately a little rusty on competition climbing as I haven't really spent any time in a gym since last April. Krissy was so, so close to winning the whole thing - just one little mistake cost her.

After the comp we went out with a big group of climbers and ate a bunch of sushi. The sushi was followed up by ice cream at COLD STONES! If you have not been there - go - asap...


Thursday, October 29, 2009

Sends in the LOC


John on When Stars Attack


John sending Dynamitus (V8)

A small crew of climbers from Fredericton was down to visit and get a tour of some of the bouldering around Halifax. I think everyone had some notable sends to put on their tick lists. John Bowles had an awesome day sending Dynamitus (V8) and Kleos (V11). He did both quite quickly with Kleos probably only taking about and hour of work - I will take some of the credit for giving perfect beta! Ha! We visited Nouveau Riche, Corn and Bung, Scoop, Area 51, and the House boulder.

My goal for the day was to climb as many problems I as could in the areas we went to. I think it was probably one of my better days in LOC.

My tick list for the day looked something like this:
Kleos (v11) - but I jumped off after matching the blocky jug...
Ressurection (v10)
Dynamitus SDS (V9?)
Dynamitus (V8)
Back on Track (v8)
When Stars Attack (V7)
Force du Sang (V7)
Imogen (V7)
Hoofmaker (V6)
La Vache quie rit? (V6)
Kirby's Jug Prob. (V6)
Can't trust skinny people (V6)
Joe Boxer (v6)
Pirranha (v5)
Captain Hook (V5)
Bop Gun (V5)
JACKS arrete (V4)
La Vie en Rose (v3)
Nouveau Riche(V1)
The Preview (V3)
Corn Holio (V3)
and some other easier problems...my skin was pretty trashed, but not as bad as Liam's!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Mates of State



Last night Krissy and I headed out to check out Mates of State at the Paragon. The show was part of the Halifax Pop Explosion festival. We went over early enough to check out a band from Iceland playing just before Mates of State. They were pretty good, though definitely no Sigur Ros (another Icelandic band). The Mates of State show was awesome - they played sooo many songs with basically no stopping at all. If you weren't there you missed out big time.

check them out: http://www.myspace.com/matesofstate

here is some low quality footage from the show....

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Fall has Arrived!




Green Jug (v6)

Krissy sending Green Jug at Grover

Ben on the Fine Line (v11ish)

Ben sending The Fine Line on his first go of the day

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Halifax Super Projects

Well, I finally got a chance to check out Bully Wall. It definitely lived up to its name. This is one of the most impressive walls I have ever seen in Nova Scotia, or anywhere for that matter. It is really big, really steep, and really hard. It looks like there are going to be a couple of lines on it that are possible. They will definitely be some of the best lines around when they do go. I'm not sure if the photos actually do this wall justice - it is crazy!



Ben pooping his pants...

Ben on a "little" warm-up next to the main wall

Ben on the direct start to the wall - the right arrete
looks like it will be the "easiest", the centre line is
insane!

Krissy on the Bully Wall Traverse

Direct start - the first few moves
on their own are double digit...


Sunday, October 11, 2009

couple of photos





Nothing really to to report on the climbing front - we are way to busy with school right now...

Monday, September 28, 2009

Old Fashion LOC Tour


Kleos(V11) in the LOC - Photo: Aidas Rygelis

On Sunday Krissy, Aidas and I went out to the LOC for a tour of some old, classic boulder problems. We went to Corn and Bung, Scoop, Area 51, and the House boulder. Some of the problems that we got on where: Jackpot, Cornholio, Can't trust Skinny people, Joe Boxer, Ressurection, Captain Hook, Pirahna, Bop Gun, When Stars Attack, Back on Track, Kleos, and JACK's arette. All really, really good problems. My skin was absolutely trashed by the end.

Krissy is gettting very close to Joe Boxer after her second time out to the problem. I just enjoyed getting out to some old classics that I have not been on in years. A nice surprise was climbing Resurrection (V10), first try after not being on the thing in a long, long time. When Stars Attack was also a nice one to get on again - it is really hard. Anyway, we had a pretty good day, (despite all the bugs!) and ticked a bunch of problems.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Hephalump Evening Session

A couple shots from a quick evening session the other night. I climbed and played around on some old problems while Krissy got in some studying (for real she was study OT stuff...).


Studying at Hephalump Boulder


Hephalump V5


Access Denied V9