It is 4AM and I cannot sleep. I’ve been asleep on and off for the past three days, getting up only when it was necessary. The sick feeling in my stomach is still there but the worst is over. It is warm and cozy in my sleeping bag as I reach out to grab my camera. The images taken only a few days ago have now become a part of a distant past, split into two eras: Before and After. The first one is a picture from the plane landing in Mexico City, taken 3 days “BP”. “Before Puking” that is. More »

Kostas came in from Italie. Nate from Maryland. Shay from San Diego. Scotty and Charles from Colorado. We converged at an apartment that Nate hooked us up with in Chamonix. More »

Past the point of exhaustion and chilled to the bone, I was only half relieved that we were making our last of roughly 15, 60 meter rappels to get off the face. For hours Fred had descended into the darkness below, tediously setting v-threads in the icy face. Now, after 20 hours on the go, we were finally back on the snow, almost to the glacier. “rope free,” called Fred. I put the ropes through my ATC, started to rappel, and then the unthinkable happened…the snow picket ripped, I fell backwards, and started sliding at full speed down the 55 degree snow slope. I knew the bottomless bergshrund was somewhere below, and I envisioned my broken body lying frozen in its depths. Unable to self arrest, I knew my time had come. I would die in the great Peruvian Andes, well before my time, under the glow of a full moon. More »

Denali has a split personality. On the one hand, it is “The High One,” the stately and lofty red and white ruler. But it is also De-gnar-li, the snow-choked, windy, frigid monster. In summer, you get to see a lot of the former in nice weather windows. But the latter rears its head even more often. And yes we got to see him up close and personal. More »

In high altitude climbing, weather windows are everything. If you can move fast enough, and are opportunistic, you can sometimes grab the summit alpine style while expedition climbers are waiting around for a bigger window. It worked for me on Denali: I just had to push harder. More »

Thanks to Anthony, Catherine’s husband, I discovered Zombie Roof, a 5.12d (recently upgrated to 5.13a) crack line. When Anthony told me about his project, of course I happily volunteered to belay him. Having never climbed a roof, I told myself I would learn by watching him, and maybe I could try to see how it feels. At that time, I was expecting to pull the moves, but not have the strength or endurance required to link them. I was entirely wrong! On my first try, I couldn’t pull any hard moves. But at my twelveth attempt, I linked them all placing my own gear!!!

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Leading the Vampire last year marked a turning point in my climbing career. It was the advent of my new climbing adventure, since life was taking me away from San Diego and my trad mentor. To keep improving, I was forced to find new climbing partners and to push myself to get on hard climbs. A year later, I believe I succeeded.
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Check it out:

http://ngadventure.typepad.com/blog/2010/02/readers-choice-adventurer-of-the-year-the-votes-are-in.html

Adventurers of the year.  That’s right.

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Information we could have used beforehand.

Transportation from Geneva

The absolute best way to get from Geneva to Chamonix is to go to chamexpress.com and spend 25 euro on a van ride directly to where you want to go.  They speak english, and you can schedule a pickup time and place online. More »

June 2009, Chamonix

Kostas, Scotty, and I chose the Frendo Spur as our first route in the Alps. Of course our “real” goals were the Petit Dru and the Walker Spur, being California hotshot rock technicians and all.
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Mont Blanc du Tacul, Gabarrou-Albinoni.  III 4+.  500 m.  “La grande classique de la face E du Mont Blanc du Tacul.” More »

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Many of us know Tasmania for one thing: The Totem Pole.  It is a very sought after and coveted ascent in climbing. It consists of a thin freestanding spire of rock 4m wide that thrusts out of the raging ocean almost 65m. More »

Wake up around 8ish, climb until the sun hits, hang out at the pool while drinking a cold frappe’, repeat. I was a little wary at first, seeing as this isn’t what I would normally call punishment. However, my little excursion to Kalymnos turned out to be both fun and rewarding. More »