one of those days

My friend Scott and I skied the south face of Stouts Mountain yesterday. 2,600 vertical feet of pure down hill swimming!

There are some great advantages of living where i do, this short little video being one of them! Stouts is 20 minutes from my house. No cars in the parking lot. No tracks going up or coming down (other than ours!). Just wind, snow, -5 degrees F and me and my buddies having some winter fun.

Dean Lords - Idaho

NC Ice and Gold Rush

The Southeast was recently hit with a long spell of very cold temps giving us a week of excellent ice conditions. I was able to climb ice seven days in a row which is not too common here in NC. Above is a shot of me leading a route at Graveyard Fields (I have no idea how to rate ice climbs but this felt hard enough for someone who's climbed ice a total of 7 times). The hardest part was remembering not to put the ice screws in your mouth when it is 5 degrees out.

Just a few days before the cold snap I found and put up a new route at Ghost Town called 'Gold Rush' (5.12). It features difficult crack climbing and a devious slab boulder problem crux. Just another addition to this incredible area of steep granite cragging. If any of you are in the area you have to get in touch with me and take the Ghost Town tour. Simply put, this is likely the best concentration of granite cragging in the 5.10 and up range in the state. Hopefully, as the new state park takes shape, access to this area will remain open.

Back to the Stomping Grounds!

This one goes out to my dog... Josh Wharton. Nice work finishing up the nasty little goal of M10 V10 5.13. Now go big in Patagonia amigo!
I just returned from 9 days of climbing in Colorado. Some rad-fun "M" climbs and some beautiful 5.13 up dazzling limestone at the Fortress of Solitude. Dazzling compared to the Montana standard.
Thanks to Josh I got a good tour of the western slope. He and his lovely Erinn even fed me the whole week. True Colorado hospitality. I'm already looking forward to next years week of fury!
As for now back to the stomping grounds and a project that should eat up some winter days!

Giddy up!
Whit Magro

M10, 5.13, and V10 in a week!

Photos top to bottom: Erinn Kelly enjoying the sunshine in Joe's Valley, the opening move of Resident Evil (V10) by Erinn Kelly, Package of Woe (M10) by Chris Goplerud.

This week I pulled off my arbitrary goal of redpointing a new M10, 5.13, and V10 in a single week. On Monday I repeated a Duane Raleigh's hybrid route in Redstone, Package of Woe. On Tuesday I climbed Blind Date (5.13b) at The Fortress of Solitude. Thursday I made the mistake of doing a few pitches at the Fortress, and working on a 5.13+ I'd never climbed. This turned out to be a big mistake, and Saturday was an epic three hour battle to climb Resident Evil (V10) at Joe's Valley. This project was a great experience builder, and taught me all sorts of things about what it takes to be competent at several types of climbing simultaneously. I think it would be very impressive to see someone push this towards the cutting edge in each discipline. My guess is that someone like Dave McLeod might be able to do an M12, 5.14, and V12 in three days! Here's to climbing, and all the contrived random goals we all concoct to keep the fire burning.

Cheers,

josh

New Routes, Ouray, friends, and lots of fun!

Whit Magro and I are hanging out in Rifle this week after a nice trip to Ouray last weekend. Ouray was fun; was able to share a few beers with friends that i rarely get to see, teach a bunch of kind enthusiastic folks techniques for ice and mixed climbing, and managed to win the comp with some great cheering from friends and family.

For the past few months I've been training, rock climbing, and putting up new mixed routes. I've had a lot of psyche lately, as I want to show up fit to climb with Tommy Caldwell in Patagonia. As a result I've gotten a lot accomplished is the last few weeks.

Around Christmas Erinn and I went to Red Rock to rock climb in the sun, where I managed to onsight some classics like Choad Warrior (5.12c), and SOS (5.13a), and redpointed the classic Red Rock testpiece Monster Skank (5.13b), which is one of the best damn sport routes I've ever done. I then finished off some mixed projects in Rifle, with FAs of Tapout (M8), Ground and Pound(M9), and Submission Victory (M10/11)--as you might notice from the names I've been watching a lot of Ultimate Fighting lately. Then it was off to Eldo for a day of sunny rock with my friend Chip, where I climbed Captain Crunch (5.13a), made the fourth ascent of a slightly scary little trad climb called Stupid Fly (5.13b), and flashed the classic Your Mother (5.12d). And if that wasn't enough spray for one paragraph I don't know what is...

For my final week before heading to Patagonia I'm trying to accomplish my arbitrary goal of doing a new M10, 5.13, and V10 in a week. Having Whit around has helped a bunch, and I've already done the 5.13 and M10. Hopefully the weather will hold out at Joe's Valley and I'll do a V10 this weekend.

The photos...Whit on Package of Woe (M10) in Redstone, Colorado, pulling some ice off the Ouray Comp route, and pulling on to the ice during the FA of Submission Victory (M10/11). Many thanks to Chris Goplerud for the photos from Redstone and Rifle. Hope you all have a great finish to you're winter, and stay safe and psyched. I'll try to post again--hopefully with stories of splitter weather and great climbs--when I'm home in late February.

Cheers,

Josh Wharton

Change of Pace

A lot of bad ass climbers have been posting here, and I'm not quite sure how dog mushing in Alaska fits, except the dogs are pretty bad ass too and we are out working hard every day.

Last time I posted we were still training in the mud and running short miles. Since getting snow and hitting the sleds, training has been relentless. Last weekend we ran the 200 mile Knik race. 30 below at the start didn't feel too bad, but it was a tad chilly after dropping into the river basin where temps were a good 20 to 30 degrees colder.

The dogs were working and happy; I was essentially motionless on the sled, and definitely ready for a break at the halfway point. The race requires a 6 hour layover, and the dogs rest the entire time. After feeding, massaging, and bedding down the team, I had time to eat and nap a few hours before I had to be back up to feed again and get ready to run back.

Lots of teams had problems with frostbite and others weren't prepared for the long miles. My young and inexperienced dogs looked great at the finish, and we placed a solid 14th out of 37.

We're looking at miles and miles more training (150 or more per week), possibly a 300 mile race in a week or two, and then Iditarod (over 1,000 miles) in March. My camera doesn't seem to work when it's this cold, so now dog pix for now.

Karin
www.blueonblackdogs.com