That poor guy on the left !
Mark at the Bronco Bowls on the Outrage Wall
so i feel like sharing a really funny story to start off.
So last weekend my friend Simeon had his friend and mother stay over for the weekend and hangout. The first day they got there it was about 3 in the afternoon and we were all out at the Outrage Wall working projects, I was trying the open project again and the rest of the gang was on habernero and hurdy gurdy man, 2 really good 12 -´s nearby. Also there was a girl working a 13a called job disgraced right next to my project.
So Sim heads home to greet the new guests and goes and gets his Spy Scope or telescope, and shows the friend and his mother what were upto on the outrage wall…at the time they bounce back and forth between myself and the girl trying the 13a. Later that night we’re all back at the house cooking dinner when the mother starts up conversation about what she saw through the spy scope earlier, not knowing who she was watching on the wall.
So she begins talking about how amazing the girl on the 13a was and what a great climber she must be and how she seemed to be moving really fast, then, she mentions in a very sad tone ¨and how about that poor guy on the left, he wasn´t moving well at all, he really didn´t seem to be a good climber. Why was he just sitting there for sooo long?”… that was about the time I jumped into the conversation and said wasn´t it the outrage wall you guys were watching those climbers on, that was me on the left!
12 step program
Lion's Head Lookout, July 2009. This is where the lightbulb went off.
I figure now that it’s officially February I can start telling this story without being overly concerned that you’ll dismiss things as just another new year’s resolution.
It’s definitely not that.
Truth told this whole thing started last year, on the day before my birthday. And Between July 15th, 2009 and today, I’ve had some of the more profound, life-changing experiences in a year that seemed to contain no shortage of them. I’ll cover a lot of them during the course of this series.
For now though, all you need to know is that I’ve been inspired to challenge myself. To take the Beta motto to heart (hell, it is February after all so this organ’ll definitely be a recurring theme). To go beyond everything I’ve personally tried already. To achieve something extraordinary.
My feet, my feet, my feet are on fire !
looking down from pitch 4 into the paradise that is the Potrero! Feeling the heat.
Its been quite the week since my last update, as fate would have it i had a salsa taste test in the weekly market before giving you guys the update last week. Unfortunately, the salsa totally destroyed my insides and put me down for a couple days, which was fine because it has turned really hot really fast down here. It seems it isn’t a full Mexican experience without a bit of stomach flu anyway right?
Well either way i am not up for sketchy salsa taste testing for a bit. I was sitting here writing my last update and thinking man that salsa really has an afterburn…… little did i know, that afterburn would last 3 days and man did it burn 
So in reflection here is a tip for the mexi market that i am now going to follow: take a pass and dont accept the super hot sauce on a sketchy corn chip and save yourself some down time instead of just rolling the dice and seeing what your stomach can handle down here
So, after i overcame the salsa fiasco i was back to cranking, or at least trying too, we went to a crag called Culo del Gato this weekend, which means the “Cats Ass”, which means in further translation, a lesser traveled, wicked crag to climb at. The best part about it is that it stays in the shade all day, which was very important this weekend because Saturday was 20 degrees as an overnight night low. The route that i am now working there is called Crawling King Snake, it is really damn hard(5.13d) and is unfinished business from a previous trip.
Information and Inspiration
Adam Reeve one of the Directors of the OAC
On a cold January afternoon, you don’t need a lot of reasons to go to the gym and pull on plastic, other than the fact that it is cold and January. However, this past weekend Climbers Rock in Burlington gave local climbers two very good reasons to get out of the cold. Climbers Rock played host to the Ontario Access Coalition holding an information meeting for all climbers concerned about their favorite crags. Adam Reeve, a Director on the OAC, highlighted the past year’s success with the positive discussions surrounding halfway log dump bouldering, the challenges with trying to re-open access to closed climbing areas like Rockwood, and an assortment of other access news in between. It was impressive to see this group of individuals from a community who affectionately describes themselves as dirtbags display a thorough understanding of issues threatening our local areas and put forward such professional advocacy of the Ontario climbing community. It was a well attended event that a couple of years ago would have garnered about as much attention as a trad rack at a bouldering comp. With more locations being threatened, and climbers being blamed for impact we don’t always create, it was inspiring to see this small group trying to prevent our local crag requiring an overnight trip to get to. If you enjoy feeling of limestone tearing at your fingers (and really who doesn’t) this is an association worth supporting and paying attention to.
psyched to send old open project !
tufa-licious climbing in El Salto, Mexico
So apparently global warming is affecting the climate down here in Mexico because in the last 6 days it has gone from 0 and almost snowing to 25 in the shade and brutally hot.
I guess if 0 degrees is as a low as it gets then I am still doing really well, I like the cold anyway and have got started on a project on the outrage wall that has been open and unclimbed for like 20 years; i have to get some photos done, the crux is super cool. Imagine going up to a 2 finger pocket near your face as an undercling and then pulling it down to your waist and then doing a huge 6ft flying cross over to a small flat edge in the distance. That move followed and preceeded by about 5.13b or c climbing makes for a great time. The route totally goes even after i ripped off some key holds and i am psyched to send it, just need some more cold days where everyone is in longsleeves and a toque wondering what happened to mexico and i am in shorts no shirt and lovin it
the update…
Posted by Dustin Curtis in news on January 18th, 2010
learing the rope at the USA climbing route setting clinic (can you spot Dustin?)
So, Frank, Dave and Jamie have all been on me to make a blog posting, especially since so much has happened since my last update. And since Mark managed to post something just before he leaves to crush everything in Mexico, I figure I’m out of the ‘too busy excuse.’
Above is a picture taken by Chris Danielson. I attended a level two route setting clinic held by him, and Molly Beard of USA climbing. The point of the clinic is to not just to stuff a bunch of route setters in a gym and let them feed off of each others creative energy but also to help cultivate their talents and, most importantly, to help pick and choose setters that USA Climbing will allow to intern and assist for their National Level comps. They use these clinics to help train setters so that they can run, organize and set regional level comps but also to evaluate which setters will move up to set ABS Nationals or SCS Nationals or US Youth Nationals.