The new purpose of the blog

The first chapter of this blog tracked my winding road trip across the country, starting about a year ago, and ending around November. Since that little outing, I've settled back into life here in SLC with a new job, a new gym, and some new clothes. During this whole settling period, I've had some time to reflect on the next big plan.

But first, a little back story.

Andy, who lives in Jackson Hole, showed up in the valley this fall after not really climbing all summer, and crushed heads. He was leading solid 5.11, which is nothing to sneeze at in Yosemite. Especially if you're doing it consistently, from wide stuff to fingers.

I asked him wtf and how he trained for that. He told me he'd been working out at a gym in Jackson called Mountain Athlete, (click on that to check out their website, it's pretty sweet.) And they had him doing stuff like this:


Looks hard core. But you can't argue with results. So when I got home to Salt Lake, I looked up a local gym that was supposed to be of the same flavor. I found Gym Jones via the internet, and dropped them an email to see if I could start training.

None other than legendary alpinist Mark Twight answered my email with a series of piercing questions about my training goals and motivation. I replied that my ultimate goal, as of right now, was to climb The Nose in 24 hours with my buddy Andy this summer. (This one's been hanging over ours heads for a while now.) I was curious if he thought the workouts at Gym Jones were specific enough for my climbing goals. Here's his response:

"Plenty of climbers have done the Nose in 12 hours on a
diet of climbing and general fitness only. A solid foundation of
general fitness is achievable at Gym Jones.

If you require a more specific program to achieve a more difficult
objective it is another story entirely."

Whoa, a more difficult objective? Fair enough Mark, screw The Nose in a push. (Or 12 hours.) We'll go climb The Nose, and then we'll climb Half Dome too, all in 24 hours. How do you like me now?

I updated Andy on our new goal, and he responded by going back to the gym to do this some more:
So while he was getting strong in Jackson, I started going to Gym Jones.

It's been a trip over there - the emphasis is all on building a solid foundation of core strength, and building everything up from there. I thought I had core strength, but the first time I tried to do a big deadlift, I understood. And ring dips, geez.

But at the end of the day, it's about honest hard work. The feeling I get from Gym Jones workouts can most closely be compared to offwidth climbing, or hauling on a big wall. You just work till you think you might puke, and when you think there's no way you could do another move, or rep, you do. And then you do another. Take another look at Andy's photo. When was the last time you worked that hard?

I think this training is going to work.

Dave Turner opens new grade VII in Patagonia, solo.

Valley regular Dave Turner finished his new grade VII solo in Patagonia, solo. It's the first time a new grade VII route has been soloed, in alpine style. Wow.

(Routes are given roman numeral grades based on the length of times they take to complete. A grade I would just be a single pitch, grade II would be a few pitches, grade III would be most of the day, grade IV is a very long day, grade V is multi day, grade VI is multiple nights (most El Cap Routes) and a grade VII is a grade VI climb with an expedition style approach, and much more commitment. Phew that was a big parenthetical.)

The new route's called Taste The Paine, and it goes up the wall in the picture. Unbelievable feat of suffering and badassry. Here's the typically understated Dave Turner, posting on Supertopo.com:

"wow! so much has happened for me in the last two months. i have fufilled my climbing dream of over six years a few days ago. standing on the top of cerro escudo in the torres del paine region of southern patagonia was anything but sane. i opened a 1,200 meter (4,000ft) overhanging big wall route in some of the worst weather i have ever experienced! i was on the wall for a total of 34 continous days, saying screw fixed ropes and siege style climbing, and went for it in pure alpine style continously moving the camp up as i went. showing up with my one haul line and two 70m lead lines might have been a bit crazy, but thats my way. the how is as important as the what. the climb was very difficult on all aspects, gear got thrashed, ropes got cut, rocks came through the ledge, whippers were logged, screamers blown, and of course the weather, oh the weather! i got absolutly pummeled by the patagonian storms! there is so much i want to talk about, but first i need to fill my stomach with real food, eat lots of ice cream, and cut this hair! i will be back to fill in a few details."

That should inspire us all. Read the thread for a more detailed account of the ascent:

Click here for the full thread.

Way The Hell Up There

Alright folks we're back, again. This blog has gone through a few life and death cycles, but that's natural. I changed the name to give it a more edgy feel, because this season we're taking things up a notch. We're not just up there any more, oh no. We're Way The Hell Up There. And you will be too.

The picture has nothing to do with this post, I just threw it in there because blog posts without pictures are boring.

And that's the new high standard of quality you can expect around here.

Okay.