Go Time!

The plan worked. And how! I'll say! Don't you know? Haven't you heard? Five crash pads are better than one! Three voices of encouragement are better than one voice of stubborn motivation! Waking up at 4am to climb is better than waking up later if it gets hotter the later it gets! As a sidenote, waking up at 4am is better if you don't drink and party with friends until 2am. OOPS! But a nice morning drive through some BBQ'd and sauteed towns leads us to a really deep-fried area, and then to the bouldering, which feels like a raw island of its own, untethered and overrun with nature.No OOPSies on the climbs, though! Let's see, what should the three of us warm up on? Hmm...Oh - I know! Let's go try Sobriosity and then see what Five Star Arete (both V6's) can give us for warming up! Then we can go just to the left of the Five Star Arete, on Ross Bongo (V10) for the camera and see if Sammy Boy Johnson and Gabe Cisneros can work it out!
And see we did! Gabe got all of the moves down! Annoyingly and awesome enough, Gabe's crux is the first big move. Getting it out of the way quickly, he sets up so as to glide up the rest of the otherwise difficult moves. Can someone pass him a tall glass of lemonade to sip from for the rest of the climb? Or is that aiding? Go for it, Gabe! Holler if you want a drink or a napkin to dab your forehead since you're climbing hard in the sun!
And Sam, who claims to have never done a V6 outside came dangerously close to making me call him a liar today. And why shouldn't I? I just saw him nearly send two classic, amazingly spread out V6's on the largest boulder in the northwestern US I've seen! I'm trying to remember if he took a well-deserved nap at that point or if he took his shirt off and started smashing the first handful of moves on R.B.... Oh yeah - He smashed 'em!

Needless to say I consider myself quite lucky to have finally climbed with both of these guys on Team Inspiration and witnessed some extremely aggressive and hearty efforts on wonderful routes that can't help but be loved by all. By all except for the birds who drop present-bombs from the tree on top of the boulder, that is! LOOK OUT BELOW!

It was nice to see Sam creek-crossing in style and Gabe rushing to get back to his family and a birthday party, packing the pads away to end the climbing day from 5am-2pm. That's what I call a good old Rally Climbin' day!

Later on I hope to receive the video footage Gabe took of me sending the problem (although this time it's cut from pieces) as well as pictures! For now, stay tuned and enjoy your sun. And then your sunburn! And then you can check out the pictures Gabe posted of us for the online guidebook, Mountain Project by clicking this: THANKS, GABE!
-Your Rally Landescaper, N8