Whispers of Spring

Winter deep freeze is finally on the way out, I think and hope. It has been a few weeks since the last very cold and each week gets a bit more like spring. Bouldering outside has been pleasant and the snow is quickly loosing the battle to sun and wind. It was a long run through this winter. I don't think we've had the deep cold like that in several winters. Of course we always get a week or two of the far below zero here in Wyoming, but this time you could feel the need the cold had to take any warmth and feeling of life. It wanted to take all hope and leave us frozen with no chance to go outside. I know this because old man winter himself imprinted his eye on the window of my study for four days during the last deep freeze. I knew of course that such determination is always one of desperation and it made me smile to know that the old guy was loosing his grasp. Now the sun carries warmth and the long winter is allowing us to go outside and boulder on real rock. Focus goes back to the leftover projects and rock we found but never had the chance to clean and climb.

The eye of winter staring into my study. A sure sign of old man winter's desperation.

The past weeks have been busy. Many orders came through for Source Holds, which were greatly unexpected and very welcome. Every dollar helps our little bouldering gym pay rent and become a better training ground. Also unexpected was the quick increase of new Source Gym Members the past weeks. People in Laramie are excited for spring and being as strong and fit as possible. Because of the new income and increased membership numbers I have been able to mold new shapes and am in the process of having Source Gym t-shirts printed. The Source Gym shirts will be printed on American Apparel cotton and will be $15 a piece.  I will update on the new shapes and shirts as things become actual products. I've been thinking of adding a separate blog for the Source Gym and related posts so that folks can get direct information on the subject.

Famous Source Crimps getting sorted for shipping to all sides of the country.

A group of us spent the past weekend re-setting all of the walls in the gym which includes many hundreds of holds. The re-set resulted in a stiff wall with many hard problems, but also a wall with better holds for endurance and power endurance. The motivation is now very high and my back has been very sore from too many hours on the poor holds on steep walls.

In other news Bryan Vansickle finally got around to creating the oh so important climbers blog (http://bvansick.blogspot.com/). He has a brief review of the Five Ten Arrowhead as well as some pics of local choss piles in Arizona. I'm hoping he continues his blog and includes his true opinion on things. Bryan is a real character and his blog could easily become the standard. For those of you who know Bryan you know exactly what he is capable of if he lets himself go free. Lets all hope.
I also received an email from friend Brian Capps that included a link to video from the guys I had bouldered with in China. It shows the quality of rock there hopefully encourages some of you to go over there. Motivated by the video and memories I dug up some other videos from Rocker the father of bouldering in China. The first link is the one Mr. Capps had sent me while the second is on Rockers list from vimeo. I would encourage you to watch as many of Rockers videos as possible. Enjoy!
Rocker video of Qingdao Bouldering 1
Rocker video of Qingdao Bouldering 2

Spring of course brings heavy wind here in Wyoming and many of those days have been spent driving back roads in search of good rock. Because of my job at the Wyoming Geological Survey new rock is being found on an almost daily basis. I keep a spread sheet open on my work desktop to add possible climbing areas as I do research for my actual job. A quick input of Lat/Lon and rock type is all that is needed and each weekend a bit of gas to drive and take a look.
Marla and I went out last weekend along a couple hundred miles of dirt in search of some possible sport crags. We found many good crags but access to public land was blocked by private ranches and huge no trespassing signs on all the walls, but one. The one that has public access is fantastic and will include full rope length pitches on very good limestone. Much of the rock is steep and very clean. Laramie can finally have a real sport crag!

For scale the dark steep wall on the right side would be 12 bolts or more in length to the anchors.