St. Louis Climbing Trip - June 14

Thursday we headed for St. Louis for a fun trip and to see family. Thursday when we got to the hotel we found out that our room would be on the 24th floor on the baseball field side over looking Busch Stadium. We had tickets for the Green Seats but was unable to get 4 seats together. We got 4 seats together right behind the Green Seats. We headed over to the ball park around 5:45 for a 7:10 game start time. The game match up was the Cardinals vs. the White Sox. The Sox ended up losing by 2. It was pretty fun though because my brother called me and said he thinks he saw me on tv. Friday we were looking for a place to get food before we went climbing. After we ate breakfast, we headed back to the hotel and packed up the rest of our clothing. At So Ill Climbing gym we got a locker, shoes, and headed off to the bouldering cave. I was able to climb a V3 for my warm up and then worked on V5s or higher (mostly V5s). When I headed to rope climbing I did one top rope route then went in the lead climbing. For my warm up on lead, I did a 5.10c that was 60 feet long and in an overhang and was pretty much like roof climbing. There was a move I did in order to clip my quickdraw that was really cool. I had my hands above my draw and my right foot even with my hands with my left foot flagging out behind my right high above my right foot. So it looked like I was climbing upside-down. Coolest move I have done so far this year. I felt pretty good and my next route was an 5.11c. I made another really cool move while climbing this route too. I was about 4 or 5 draws up and I was trying to clip the draw ahead of me. Flagging my right foot was not allowing for the stability that I was needing to make the draw. I had to do a heel hook and pull in pretty tight just to make the draw and not tip over to one side. I made it about 3/4s the way on the route and was really happy with it because I found a spot that was giving me tons of trouble. I did both of the 5.10c and 5.11c a few more times. Dinner we went to Olive Garden because that was what I wanted. Saturday, we head to the new Upper Limits in West County. My body was still pretty tired and beat up from the day before. We started off by warming up on a 5.9 then two 5.8s. Once I got warmed up I went on a 5.10 lead and got on another 5.10 that was fun but gave me a little trouble. I was a little off on lead climbing but still pushed till my body gave out. I stopped lead climbing and went to top rope climbing. I got on a 5.11 and it gave me challenge. There was a 5.10 that I got on that really didn't make to much sense. My brother gave it a shot and he got to the same spot I got to. After climbing we packed up and head to my grandma's house. It took about 45 min to get there. They were getting ready to go to church so we head to town for dinner where we meet my aunt and uncle there. South Side Bar-B-Que is really good and every time we go to her house we stop there for dinner. After dinner we went to the hotel and took a break from everything for a while before we went to the pool. Sunday was a travel day but before we hit the road we stop for breakfast with everyone. After breakfast we left and were on our way home. All of the photos and videos will be loaded sometime with in the next week to Flickr, YouTube and Facebook.

Memorial Day Climbing Weekend

These past two weeks have been super crazy with climbing and improvements all around. Saturday, the 26th, we went to the YMCA to climb there for about 3 hours. I warmed up by climbing a 5.9 lead and then worked my way up in to the higher grades. I pushed my self pretty hard but at the same time wanted to save myself alittle for Sunday. Sunday, we headed up to Governor Dodge State Park to climb at the Qual Wall. Sunday was about 92 degrees and humid. The only place that was alittle cooler was up against the rock under the overhang.We messed a little on determining which route was what but we figured it out. The Qual Wall was sandstone and I found it really hard to climb. I started off on a top rope route that was a 5.10 and it wasn't to bad. It was more under clingy than anything else. Nearing the top of the route there was a ledge that u had to walk up but it was just like a hill. The second route I did was a 5.10 sport route. The beginning of the route till the third draw was pretty easy then the moves between the 3rd and 5th bolts/ quick draws was pretty hard and it took a while to get to the 5th bolt. I came down after I clipped the the rope in because my arms were pumped. Kaz went after me on the same route and it took him 3 falls to get past the 5th quick draw then the top I guess was very easy. Kaz tried to set up another route that was a 5.12 but you were unable to get to it from the top section. This meant you have to sport climb the route in order to creat a toprope climb. The first 20 feet of the route were unprotected so he brought up a couple cams and nuts with him till he made his first bolt. He made it up to the 3rd bolt on the route which had 6 bolts on it. The day was really nice but it was hot and everyone there was tired and we decided to start packing up.  We got home about 9pm Sunday. Monday, we headed up to Jakes Rock in Halescorners. Jakes Rock is a bouldering rock that has some pretty hard problems on it along with some easier ones. I spent mojority of the time working on a problem that gave everyone a hard time. The problem was rated a V4-V5 about 20 minutes of working on the route I finally got it. Once I got it the route seemed to be a cakewalk after that. After That i found another problem that gave me a challenge so I worked on that was a while till about 2pm. My hands were torn up by that time so I decided that I was done climbing for the weekend. All of the photos from Governor Dodge State Park and Jakes Rock are posted to both my Flickr and Facebook account. Along with all videos from both climbing places.