Moved, remodeled, moved, built climbing wall, beer, oysters, moved, built climbing wall, beer, beer, rock climbing, Rifle, Wyoming, Boston, Cape Cod, Connecticut, Manhattan, SLC, Boise, SLC, Casper, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Newlin Creek, SLC. Finally got the interweb hooked up at the house!!

Yeah. Been a bit hectic that last couple of months. In February I found out that the Boise Front was changing ownership and that I was no longer going to be working there…or Kaiya. Options were either start the construction company back up (good $$, lots of lower back problems) hope Kaiya got a great job and live off of her, or squat at Mike and Tammy McClure’s house. Kaiya actually did that for a while too.

Mom with her favorite goat, Chester

We ended up choosing the the unlisted option of moving to Salt Lake, where I will be the head route setter for both the Front gyms and Kaiya will be Kaiya. Unemployed for now, but armed with a college degree she will undoubtedly make more than me at her first real job. Good for me. On March 16th we officially were “houseless”-I have and always will have a home-and we headed to Moscow Idaho to do some remodeling at my mother’s house. Usually I only stepped in on construction projects at the folks when the stakes were high and larger things needed to be done without measuring once and cutting thrice. Many people do not know, but my father passed away in a freak accident in January, leaving it up to me to help mom out when she needs it, so to Moscow we went. I sawed through a steel bath tub, remodeled some bathrooms, cut and split 3 chords of firewood and did all the little maintenance jobs that my dad would do on a regular basis.

My mother. The ONLY 64 year old woman I know that can sledgehammer toilets, run a chopsaw and routinely does sheetrock work. A true badass lady.

After Moscow, we headed through Boise on our way to SLC. We planned on heading down to SLC, finding a place to live, then I was to fly out to Boston to work on a huge climbing gym for Brooklyn Boulders. I spent a month in Boston working 80 hours a week, was there during the Marathon Bombing and all. Kaiya flew out the first of May and we saw some relatives and spent some time with family. Once we got back, we still had to find a place to live. With the dog, and our desire to not reside in the ghetto it was a bit hard to find a house that fit all of our requirements.

Found a place, moved all our stuff into a friends garage and headed to the beautiful state of Wyoming. On our way to Colorado Springs we stopped in and climbed at the Alcova Boulders near Casper Wyoming. Very high quality sandstone, on par with Joe’s Valley. Bullet black rock, well featured with tons of hard projects to be done. We climbed for a couple days and then headed to CO. Spent two weeks in Colorado, managed to get out to Newlin Creek and climb for a day. I sent the Nickness (fell off the jug on the flash) and Kaiya made quick work of Pineapple Express. Derek Foote did his 2nd V8-the Nickness Stand and Pineapple Express as well.

After Colorado Springs Kaiya and I stopped in Rifle for a couple days of rope climbing before I set for Divisional and National SCS Competitions this year. I needed some endurance. I surprised myself by flashing a 12c, 13a, sending a 13b in three tries and almost flashing a classic 13c, Sprayathon. For just a couple climbing days it was a great trip. Lots of photos of dogs.

The video is of our last trip to Riggins this spring with Adam Bradley and Nicole Brown. That is one place I will return to each year to try and send some of the great projects that are still lying in wait for someone to top them out. Enjoy the photos and video, I will get the Wyoming and Colorado video up this weekend!

Stay tuned for more!