Old Man Moon Go Go Go

How About...A VIDEO!!!

2011-06-03T22:47:00.000-07:00

For your viewing pleasure:

New Zealand Mega Adventure 2011 from Ryan Moon on Vimeo.

Please don't kill me. This is my first time using iMovie.

Rest Days (aka Darfield Days)

2011-05-24T17:41:00.000-07:00

There's one thing that we look forward to almost as much as our climbing days; it's called rest days at Darfield. Halfway between Castle Hill and the earth-shaken Christchurch lies New Zealand's cultural hub known as Darfield. The population is a modest 1,500 or so people and hosts some of the finest 'get Ryan Moon fat now' venues. We typically start off our rest days by getting meat pies and expensive coffee at the local bakery. After trying my best not to devour all the pastries at the bakery, we then travel to the library where the meat of our day is spent. Library sessions usually consist of 3-5 hours of facebooking and facebook chatting (sadly, much to much of it being with my co-workers). If you feel as bad as I do about lounging in the corner for hours on end using free wi-fi and charging about thirty different electronic devices, you do something nice for the sweet old ladies at the front desk...like buy them cookies. Since then it's been nothing but smiles. From the library we venture to the fish and chips shop. Don't try to get free tartar sauce from the apathetic teenage girl at the front, she ain't gonna budge. I hate her for that. Next door to the fish and chips shop, and next stop for the Moon and Vergne boys, is...

...ICE CREAM!!! AAAHHH!!!

The birthplace of our love for the infamous Tip Top ice cream is right here in Darfield. One should be prepared before ordering ice cream on a cone in New Zealand. A single scoop in the states is just that, a single scoop. A single scoop in New Zealand is a grapefruit sized ball of bliss that even my sweet tooth can barely handle. There was one experience where the woman serving the ice cream crushed my cone into oblivion attempting to place the gigantic frozen sugar sphere onto what would normally be a structurally sound cone. Alas, she had to rescoop.

Should I just start a blog about ice cream?

Yum. If we're lucky enough do all this before 5pm, we usually hit the library again for one last internet sesh. The sun then is just about setting and becomes our cue to return home to our soggy tents and mediocre camp food.

Last night the usual highly unpredictable NZ weather took hold. I had trouble sleeping through most of the night because it felt like Zeus was unveiling his almighty wrath upon our campsite. Frustration ensued. An incredibly accurate depiction of my experience last night can be seen here:

Most of our friends here have been either from Australia or New Zealand, both are places that use the metric system. We, as you know, do not use the metric system. This has produced all sorts of confusion. Conversations can go:

"My friend did that problem and he weighs 100kg!"

"Oooooh. Wow. Wait, is that a lot?"

It also means that every time I think of an increment, be it distance, weight, or even time I have the need to translate it. Example:

"It's not too bad. The drive is only about 20 or so minutes. My bad, you guys don't use minutes. Do you?"

Last but not least, here are some pics to prove that I am still very much south of you.

[Holly wrapping up unfinished business on her send go of the classic 'Beautiful Edges'. One of Spittle Hill's most classic problems and until today, a long term project for Holly.]

[Eric on Disconnect.]

[Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Eric Vergne.]

[So many tick marks.]

[Awesome highball runnel action out at Flock Hill.]

[My only complaint is, I wish I were vacationing somewhere aesthetic.]

[Visually, it's not Barstow, CA, but it'll have to do.]

Oh My God! One More Week!

2011-05-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

Let's get one thing out of the way here. Yes, the climbing is world class and that is the reason I originally came to this magical place. However, it's the ice cream that really, really makes this place great. A New Zealand company called Tip Top makes the world's greatest sweet creamy goodness and it comes in flavors that don't exist in the states. There's nothing that stands between me and a single (double) scoop of Tip Top cookies and cream. Good god. Come for the climbing, stay for the ice cream. Sumo Ryan, here we come.

The sun has been out like you wouldn't believe and we have been climbing! Also, my arm injury thing is all healed up. See, I told ya things would get better. The temps have been unbelievable and the forecast is cold and sunny until we leave for the states. Freakin' rad!

Our crew of people that have been camping together before getting kicked out have remained a tight knit posse and have since migrated to a drier, sunnier, more beautiful, legitimately free site on a lake just down the road.

Keepin' the post short cuz Eric and I are about to hit the town of Nelson and show 'em how we do.

[Eric and I kept passing this weird RV-looking thing on the side of the road while driving to our climbing area every morning. We decided to pop on in and see exactly what it was. It seems that a very nice couple, Rowana and Russell, travel around as part of a caravan of gypsy hippies and go to gypsy conventions. We had no idea such conventions existed. They had no idea there was climbing at Castle Hill. Touche.]

[Rowana & Russell of 'Rowana & Russell's Roaming Rig' fame.]

[Me on one of our favorite lowball turds that we've been calling runnel cake. Boy, do we love the runnel puns.]

[Eric trying his luck on a classic Castle Hill mantle.]

[Even the Kiwis have a sense of humor.]

Quote of the day:
"How come I keep seeing hipster dudes that look like Boy George?"
-Eric Vergne

Goodbye Rain, Hello Hurricane Winds!

2011-05-16T20:39:00.000-07:00

Aside from of course the infamous 'sun rain' that occurs in broad daylight every morning and our nightly downpours, the rain is mostly gone. Replacing it is the world's most ruthless wind gusts. Picture an incredibly beautiful day at an amazing bouldering area with five or so climbers wearing puffy jackets huddled together in cave seeking refuge from the wind. Having said that, our Kiwi friend Oliver managed to tick off two of his long term Flock Hill projects; Trifecta Left (V9) and Monster Society of Evil (V10). I must've been too busy complaining about the wind to whip out my video camera and get footage. Oops.

On another note, I seemed to have pulled something tendon-wise in my left arm making it way painful to pull on anything. I'm not sure how it happened, but now I'm limited to slabs and mantles. If you'd like to see some entertainment, stop by Castle Hill, New Zealand and witness Ryan Moon trying to get his meat over some V2 mantles and grease off slabs that boy scouts and school groups waltz up during fields trips.

Also, climbers and rangers don't have the best of relationships here (weird). This morning we got booted from our campsite by a ranger accompanied by his rugby player looking police officer friend. Way lame. Apparently, the campground we've been told was a free campground is not at all. We've moved. We're fine. All is well. He was kind of a butt face about it though. Just sayin'.

I promise super amazing news is on the horizon!...I hope. In a few days we're headed to a town on the northern tip of the south island called Nelson. It'll be a nice rest for our elbows and will give us an opportunity to do something New Zealand-ish. If you're lucky you'll see some awkward photos of me with the fear of god in my eyes as I count my blessing on some easy lowball mantles.

[Our Kiwi friend Holly on a great V3 slab problem at Flock Hill.]

[This place is beautiful.]

Halfway Point

2011-05-14T17:48:00.000-07:00

Today marks the halfway point of our trip. It also marks the first shower I've taken since I've been here. 'Clean' used to be just a word. Now it's something I'll try to achieve on a more regular basis during this trip.

I know rain has been a pretty consistent theme on my blog entries, but it's only because rain has been a pretty consistent theme on our trip. It literally rains EVERY night. Even if the forecast is perfect, it's still guaranteed to rain in the middle of the night. We've even come up with a term for the rain that occurs in the full morning sun, 'sun rain'. Sun rain is an interesting phenomenon. It gives you the illusion that the day is nice while, at the same time, presenting you with awful truth that it is indeed raining.

Phoenix at Quantum Field, New Zealand from Ryan Moon on Vimeo.

I finally got a video to upload (WOO HOO!). Here's me on one my favorite problems of the trip so far. A couple tries before this one, I fell from the top and scraped my forehead on the corner of the boulder. It freakin' hurt. Observe the evidence at the end of the video.

Lots of Sun, Lots of Climbing

2011-05-11T16:43:00.000-07:00

Things have certainly been pretty great during the last week. The sun does in fact shine on the South Island of New Zealand. There was a moment there when I didn't think we were gonna be climbing at all on this trip. I was actually woken up one night by rain only to look outside of my tent and see not one single cloud in the sky. It rains here with no clouds! WTF!

Most of our trip has been split between two areas here at Castle Hill; Spittle Hill and Quantum Field. A majority of the climbs are described in the guidebook as:

'Follow pocs [pockets] up face to encounter slopey mantle of death. Castle Hill classic!'

...yay.

Actually, they are quite fun and climbing here definitely makes you feel like you just started all over again. Basically, every climb ends in mantling two big ass slopey butt cheeks. What's kinda funny is that the outhouses at Spittle Hill and Quantum Field have locks on the inside and outside. This makes for some pretty fun pranks between friends...and strangers?

Our most recent adventure was to the much talked about Flock Hill. Eric and I braved the 45 minute hike out there one miserable rainy day last week. It resulted in taking refuge under overhangs hating life and a 45 minute 'don't talk to me' walk of shame back to the car. That freakin' sucked. My shoes are FINALLY dry 5 days later. A few sunny days later and a full day of climbing there, Flock Hill is now my favorite spot at Castle Hill. The features are super unique and less butt cheek topouts. A consistent theme at Flock Hill is a feature in the limestone that folks here are calling runnels. It's like a negative tufa that provides all sorts of different styles of climbing. Also, there is no guide for Flock Hill, making the boulder problems nameless and gradeless unless you're there with a local.

[The view from on top of Flock Hill. Caught in the distance during the last fading light of the day is the upper sector of Quantum Field.]

[A group of very enthusiastic tourists from Thailand jumping up and down on Eric's crashpad. They had never seen one before and were curious as to how soft a mat you're trusting your life with is.]

[Me climbing a super classic highball V1 slab at Quantum Field called 'Ode to Joy'.]

[Eric on 'Ode to Joy'.]

[Our Australian friend Allen on one of the reasons I was originally drawn to New Zealand bouldering. 'The Joker' V9.]

[Apparently, some time ago, the Dali Lama came to Castle Hill and dubbed this specific area 'The Center of the Universe'. Hippies hang out here and act weird together.]

[Upon topping out this limestone behemoth, Eric catches the last glimpse of sunlight and wonders to himself, 'When I die, will I dream?']

[On our way from camp to climbing one morning, we saw this car teetering on the edge of a cliff. Kinda like a movie, but f'real. Scary!]

[The car we've rented doesn't have an ipod friendly setup. These compact discs have been our wisest purchase yet. So far, so good.]

I've been trying to upload videos, but vimeo seems to not like me for the time being. I promise a mega-video when I get back, complete with music and super-bitchin' editing!

On a side note, a concern of mine prior to leaving for this trip was a native parrot called Kea. They are the only alpine parrots in the world and are heavily protected. If you mess with them you supposedly get fined $50,000. The trouble is, they rip open people's tents and cars. Instead of taking your food, they take your wallets and important stuff. No encounter with Kea have been made yet, but the concern is ever present. Firsthand Kea horror stories have been told to us by more than one person. On the Kea wikipedia page, under the 'Human Interaction' section, you can find:

The Kea's notorious urge to explore and manipulate, combined with strong neophilia, makes this bird a pest for residents and an attraction for tourists. Called "the clown of the mountains", it will investigate backpacks, boots or even cars, often causing damage or flying off with smaller items.

People commonly encounter wild Kea at South Island ski areas. The Kea are attracted by the prospect of food scraps. Their curiosity leads them to peck and carry away unguarded items of clothing or to pry apart rubber parts of cars—to the entertainment and annoyance of human observers. They are often described as "cheeky". A Kea has even been reported to have made off with a Scottish man's passport while he was visiting Fiordland National Park.

Here's some more Kea stuff for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMLpPoOeays
http://www.bears.co.nz/dyk/kea.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKWCz0YhmcY

Also, they eat people. Just kidding...or am I?

4 days in NZ, 1 day climbing, so far...

2011-05-05T18:18:00.000-07:00

Nothing like international travel to bring you up to date on the romantic comedies you've been missing out on. Eric and I arrived safely on May 3rd (skipping May 2nd completely) in Christchurch early in the morning. After getting our mega cheap rental car, we quickly went to work gathering food/supplies for our upcoming month of camping. It's actually quite sad how much destruction was caused during Christchurch's recent earthquake. It seems that the quake exclusively targeted churches, knocking out what normally would have been an impressive array of stained glass.

The first few days of our trip have been pretty boring. The weather has prevented us from doing anything cool. I promised myself that I would do some super rad New Zealand stuff and not spend an entire month abroad staring at rocks, BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT...

...this weather effing sucks and I'm going to go crazy from the lack of climbing and sunshine. Also, boy oh boy, am I gonna be fat when I get back. No climbing + a jillion cookies and heaps of cheap nz beer = SUMO RYAN!!!

As far as culture shock goes, I can't even tell that I'm abroad aside from left side driving and world's hardest to understand English speaking residents. Seriously, are they really speaking English? Are they really?

Sooooooo, we rock climbed. Oh yes. Ryan is happy. The sun came out after we were quite certain that our flight had landed us in a Pacific Northwestern winter. This place really is quite amazing. Check your ego at the door, cuz you're gonna get spit off everything. I knew this coming into this trip, but dang yo.

Friction?

Nope.

Feet?

Ehhh, kinda.

View from the top of Spittle Hill.

Eric waltzing up the buckets on one of New Zealand's coolest higball slabs.

Hopefully the weather shapes up. Unfortunately, if the weather is awesome, I will not be posting because I'll be having a kick ass time greasing off nasty slopers in an area that people film fantasy movies. Unfortunately again, if the weather sucks I will be posting, it just won't be about anything that anybody cares to hear.

Also, isn't it weird how inaccessible Mexican food is when you leave California? Weird.

Did I Mention That I'm Going to New Zealand?

2011-05-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

To those of you who don't know, I'm leaving for New Zealand to do a month of bouldering at Castle Hill. More importantly, to those of you who don't know...how didn't you know? I've only been sneaking it into conversations any chance I could since January. I really didn't want to bring my computer abroad again, but some people (really just my parents) want to know what I'll be up to on my trip. Also, this can be an opportunity for you to pretend like you're in NZ with me enjoying great temps and world class bouldering in an unbelievable setting. However, it's important to remember that you are most certainly not here. You are there. Have fun greasing off the boogery-ass slopers on the wave!

-Ryan Mooooooooooon

Videos

2009-07-15T14:06:00.000-07:00

If anyone cares, here's some videos:

Pinotage (Rocklands, South Africa) from Ryan Moon on Vimeo.

Crybaby (Rocklands, South Africa) from Ryan Moon on Vimeo.

Schwupp (Rocklands, South Africa) from Ryan Moon on Vimeo.

What an amazing trip!

Fun, Fun, Fun.

2009-06-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

Some Weird African Plant

Eric Lookin' Sharp

What once was a month is now just a week. I felt like a month was an eternity until the end of this trip got closer. The whole thing so far has been a blast to say the least. There has been a bunch of climbing going on, a lot of sends by a lot of people. Walker and small Jesse (sorry) did the Amphitheatre, which seems like one of coolest problems around. Its a huge overhanging boulder with super powerful moves and quite possibly one of the most amazing pinches I've ever seen on real rock. If I ever end up bouldering V12, it seems like something that would be fun to try. I did however do my project of the trip about a week ago, Pinotage. Holy moly, what an amazing climb! I worked for three days and maybe have not ever wanted to do a rock climb so bad in my life. Eric is really, really close. There's pretty core intensive cut loose move where you have to move your heel up to a ledge that keeps on getting the best of him. Soon though, soon. I did Black Spider which is a cool problem and I'm glad to have done it. However, more than anything, it marks the end of a very emotional battle of Ryan vs. Rock. Yesterday we went to an area called 8 Day Rain. Pretty cool, not a lot of stuff, but cool. A very fun and extremely A-typical Rocklands boulder problem; technical highball slab arete. After that we got on a bunch of V-a-millions that shredded the shit out of tips. After I almost gave up on 8 Day Rain area, Walker showed us Crazy Legs. Fuck yeah. Awesome overhanging, super beta intensive arete. The crazy legs move is a super weird inside leg flag. I've never done one of those before, but it seemed to work. Come here, do it. I began work on Nutsa, which is pretty much THE boulder problem a lot of people think of when Rocklands comes to mind. I'm close as one can be to sending something pretty out of my range:

Last move...
...on the ground.
Over and over and over.

Me and Eric on Crazy Legs

Blah, blah, blah. Climbing talk gets super boring after a while. If anybody reading this comes to South Africa for a month or longer, please for own sake, do more than just rock climb. Thank god Eric and I are going to Cape town for a few days to drink and become "cultured". There's only so much bouldering and talking about Fred Nicole and V100s that I can do before I've felt like I've wasted a trip around the world...not wasted, but you know. I'm in fucking South Africa! I need to do some African shit!

The Shark

Oops, here's that video (and some other pics)

2009-06-19T02:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the wait.

Roadcrew (The Pass)

2009-06-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

So we went back to the Pass, but this time climbing at Roadcrew instead of Roadside. This area has the ultra famous Cedar Spine and Ulan Butar (that's not how its spelled, I know). Cedar Spine is fucking amazing!!! Totally worth the hype. If you come here, you cannot leave without climbing this mega classic highball arete. Ulan Butt-Stain however is a total crap pile (not because I didn't do it). I guess some people called it the "Midnight Lightning of the Rocklands", but that is a load of zebra poop. It has the mega tweaky lightning bolt hold that you have do a weird one-arm pull up lock off thingy on that totally made my pinky hurt all effing day. Lame, lame lame. Walker lead us up to this area called the Fortress after we did Cedar Spine. The Fortress has all this super hard cave problems that look really cool, but are all actually the same as eachother. Even though the climbing here isn't great, it had probably the most amazing view of the Rocklands I've seen so far.

Rest/Rainy Days (Laaaaaaame)

2009-06-16T06:57:00.000-07:00

As any climber knows, rain is hella dumb. We've been blessed most of our trip with great weather. Of course with anywhere during winter, there's bound to be some rain. Eric and I chose to make a pretty bitchin' stop animation movie. Feast your eyes on what may be the single most amazing stop animation film every created...forever!

Fields of Joy

2009-06-12T03:31:00.001-07:00

It seems like everybody in our house (in the middle of the street! la, la, la) is getting bit by skeeters at night, not just me. This girl staying with us named Petra has come up with a solution that kinda works. Keyword there being "kinda". She says that when she hears them buzzing by her ear while she asleep she immediately grabs her headlamp and shines it on the wall closest to her. This usually reveals the culprit. And then...

WHAM!

WHAM!

WHAM!

Ha ha ha! Dead skeeter blood all over the walls. It kind of turns into all night attempt at genocide, but its worth not waking up with itchy bites.

Pretty much every where we go, most of problems seem to be rated V10.

"Hey Walker, this problem looks cool. How hard is it?"
"V10. Its really cool though."
"Oh. What about this one? It looks sorta chill."
"That's a Fred Nicole project. Nalle what's-his-name got super close last season. People are saying is rated V25."
"...Yay."

After complaining about this issue for some time now, we were told that an area called Fields of Joy is supposed to have a bunch of fun moderates. We went today and checked it out only to be scorched by the intense African sun. It was still super fun. We hopped a bunch of fun stuff and ended up actually completing some rock climbs! Crazy huh? I'll get names of the problems later. We weren't with anyone who knew the area that well, so we just got stuff that looked fun.

The Rhino

2009-06-12T02:24:00.000-07:00

The toy dart guns that Eric and I bought aren't as fun as they once were. I assumed that they would be fun until up until the very end of the trip. I suppose getting shot in the face can only be fun for so long.

We recently revisited an area called roadside, also known as The Pass, where there was some sending, but mostly a lot of wind and heavy doses of bitching by yours truly. Walker ended up sending the mega classic Nutsa in his second try of the day. Yeah Walker! I did the stand which is a supposed V10 (Yeah effing right! More like V5.) wherein getting off the ground feels like V13 followed by super easy arete climbing. Fun stuff. Eric and I have been trying this really, really cool V9 traverse called Black Spider. Super, super fun moves in a really nice setting ending with a heartbreaker of a finish move resulting in me screaming a few times. Yikes. I'll be back for you Black Spider, you heartless son of a bitch!

Anywhooooo...

The Rhino! Sooooooo cool. How can you not want to climb a rock jutting out horizontally into space shaped like a rhino's head? We're not sure of the grade, but we settled somewhere around V8. I typically hate climbs I can't do, until of course I do them. However, this is one of few problems I wasn't able to complete that I'm super phsyched on. Woo Hoo! I still feel like hiking out to some of the more remote boulders is kinda scary. I always expect a cobra to come rising up from a bush and bite me in the neck or something.

Suck It Hueco!

2009-06-07T09:55:00.000-07:00

South African rental cars are total crap. The barely make it up certain hills and bottom out all over the place. The most intense drive to date has been the one up to an area called The Sassies. Uphill sand driving in a tiny rental car with four dudes and all their shit in it. We made up the hill “first try”, which from what I hear is kind of a big deal. The Sassies end up being my favorite area so far. The main boulder alone has something like 15-20 lines on it. Pretty much all are classic, classic lines. Near the main boulder are two raaaaaaaaaaaad caves. Suck it Hueco! One cave has two great problems and one hard dyno contrivance and the other caves has one of the coolest V10s I’ve ever seen called Ghost in the Darkness. The first cave with the multiple problems holds the gem of the area; a V8 called Petite Hueco. Wow. Wow. So cool. Hella long roof on perfect incuts and amazing movement followed by the first even semi hard top out I’ve encountered here. Anyone coming to Rocklands this season needs to do this!!! Petite Hueco, remember the name. One the main boulder with all the problems lies a line called Pinotage, named after the wine of South Africa. Pinotage checks in at V10 and climbs a beautiful red-orange face on the boulder. Strong fingers and hard lock offs are the name of the game. Mike Abell would murder this problem. Lots of fun!

Africa, you dangerous!

2009-06-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

The Pass seems to be the area with the most concentrated climbing. There are problems here that you may have heard of or seen like Nutsa or Caroline. I figured that there pretty much wasn’t anything high in the Rocklands until we came here. Its true, there are massive proud lines just sitting side by side each other. One line specifically called Scwupp (V6) is soooo cool. Its about 25 feet high and has a nice (depending on how tall you are) dyno about half way up. It has more of the quartzite qualities of the Rocklands stone than sandstone qualities it typically shares. Another sweet ass highball is Creaking Heights (V4). Totally mega cool lieback crimp line with a very, very committing rock over move up high. Aside from those “easy” lines I’ve just mentioned, everything is about V10 or so. Upon standing in front of something amazing looking that first believe to be about V7 or V8, you inquire about the grade to the nearest climber. The response is generally something like, “Ummmm, I think V10 ish. Nalle what’s-his-name did it the that one video.”

In addition to being the most concentrated of the areas so far, it had the most people. This can be good and bad. At first I was wondering if we were the only climbers in Africa this season, but The Pass did have its fair share of people. Not like Happies during spring break packed, but in the middle of African wilderness packed. Ya know?

American television does a lot to you as far making you believe things about a place before even being there. I’ve essentially come to believe that anything alive in Africa will try to rip my face off or sink its fangs into my neck and then proceed to inject a lethal dose of venom into my blood stream. We keep on hearing these stories about baboons the size of a grown man in certain bouldering areas. Apparently when you get close to them, they hoot and holler and make hostile gestures probably suggesting their intolerance of human presence. Not cool. Then of course there’s the crazy amounts of deadly snakes and supposed gnarliest of the gnarly scorpions. About every morning so far I’ve woken up with an unpleasant number of bug bites, which I’m hoping are mosquito bites. I imagine the East Bay is more danger than most people would be comfortable experiencing, but this is a whole different story.

Rock Climbing!

2009-06-07T03:30:00.000-07:00

Today is the first time so far that I’ve started to feel comfortable and settled. We went into town and bought all of our food for the next month. Everything is in boxes. Like everything that Americans feel should be put in the fridge or kept cold was boxed. Milk and eggs are kept on the shelf. Weird. Cheap, cheap stuff. Aside from that, we went rock climbing!! Woo hoo! I forget the name of the area (I’ll figure it out later), but it has problems named Minkie, Poison Dwarf, and Hole in One. I bought these two cheap lame dart guns at the supermarket in Clanwilliam and Eric and I kept shooting eachother and other people with them.

Anyway…climbing:

The boulder(s) with Poison Dwarf also had a bunch of fun warm ups. Pretty much everything on this boulder was mega soft except for Poison Dwarf itself. Poison Dwarf is the really cool overhanging 7B lowball (because as it turns out, 90% of climbs in the rocklands are not very tall) that is simple and powerful. After Poison Dwarf, we wandered over to a corridor-like area called Arch Valley (I think). Fun climbs, lowball again, good holds, good feet and thus, gymnastic. The prize of that area is the V4 going over the Arch. I forget the name, but “Arch” is in it I assure you. We tried, and some sent, this problem going from the start of V4 arch problem and heading right instead of left. It involves an odd one-arm dyno to the lip of the boulder. I totally under shot the throw and came crashing sideways to the ground. But Hey!...I’m OK! I didn’t get hurt at all. We tried some dyno for a while that ended up giving me a flapper. First flapper in the first day. So blah, blah, blah. Minkie. Minkie, Minkie, Minkie!

So Cool.

So different than other Rocklands climbs so far.

International Flying

2009-06-07T03:16:00.000-07:00

Flying across the world is a freaking chore. It’s a little better that I’m traveling with my friend Eric (who right now look super Italian. Like from Italy Italian. Super long hair and a button up shirt exposing his “bat signal” chest hair. Its pretty funny). I’m finally in South Africa after traveling for about a day and half. I know people do this sort of thing all the time, but that was sorta intense.

SFO to JFK (5 hrs.)

JFK to Amsterdam (7hrs.)

Amsterdam to Cape Town (11hrs.)

Driving from Cape Town to Rocklands (3 hrs.)

Basically, flights in the States totally blow and flights anywhere else are totally rad. My flight with Delta from SFO to JFK wanted me to pay $5ish for food. Since when have you had to pay for food? Laaaame. Movies were six bucks and drinks were seven bucks. F that. Then…I fly KLM the rest of the trip. Damn, waaaay better. They’re pretty much shoving food and booze down your throat. There are actually times when you have to tell them no. The food is free, warm, and really, really good. Oh movies?...free! And tons and tons of them!

I messed up when giving my friend Walker my flight info. For some reason, I only gave him the time if day that my flight was coming in. I left out the actual date of my arrival and gave him the wrong flight number. Thank god Walker handles business and was smart enough to correct my errors. He was already waiting for us when we walked out to baggage claim. The sad unorganized plan Eric and I had developed was to rent a car and ask somebody where Clanwilliam (the town closest to Rocklands) is and how to get there at 10:00 pm. Then get to Clanwilliam at about 1:00 am and ask anyone awake where the Rocklands are. Dumb.

The house that we’re staying is pretty cool. Hella big! Probably six or so rooms, each fairly large. I have my own bed? Is this really a climbing trip? I’m so used to camping out in below freezing temps in the desert. Sleeping is impossible after all the transcontinental flights. Right now I’m the only one up, the sun has just risen, and the workers on the local farm have begun their duties.

I’ll have cooler things to post next time. Maybe like actually rock climbing related. Eh, Eh?

How's Mortar Rock?

2009-06-01T15:46:00.000-07:00

I'm about to leave for South Africa and on a whim decided to create this blog. It sounds exciting now, but I probably will get totally over it in my first few days. Lucky for you, there will be tons and tons of pictures and fun stuff to read written by your favorite overbearing bay area rock gym desk staff!

Have fun projecting Nat's Traverse!

-Ryan Moooooooooooooooooon