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Had two good days of climbing down in Twin Falls this weekend. On Sunday we met a whole host of new friends down at Dierkes lake for some gear and top-roping followed by a few boulders. The crew (8 at one point) was the largest group I have ever climbed with and it was awesome to share the motivation of early season climbing. Climbing was a lonesome activity in AK and we are stoked to get involved with a motivated core of local climbers here in the Big Wood. Can’t wait to get back out there and push ourselves again next weekend!

Shoshone Falls

Pat on his way to sending Bear Hug.

JP working Bear Hug.

Ian cruising on Painted Rock.

I have never felt safer, pads and spotters really increase my enjoyment of bouldering!

All dried up.. but out from under the snow!

Beau working Dropkick just before the F.A. later that afternoon.

Heading for the crux hold.

Beau working Dropkick on Painted Rock.

It always feels good to achieve a goal, especially one that you know will be a great challenge. After popping a tendon in my left ring finger while climbing at Wild Iris in Wyoming I needed a little motivation to get back on the horse.

Moments before the tendon injury that would drastically change the path of our trip. Tomahawk Slam (5.12a) – Wild Iris, WY

An injury smack in the middle of our trip was deflating after working so hard to regain our strength following two shortened climbing seasons in Alaska. A new goal to focus my efforts for the remainder of the season was exactly the motivation I needed. Attempting to climb twenty 5.12 routes before the end of the year was an idea I adopted from our friend Dana. It seemed to me like great motivation to try harder climbs as well as build up a solid 5.12 base. Previously 2010 was my most prolific 5.12 climbing season during which I climbed ten 5.12 routes before moving to Alaska in June. I knew doubling my 2010 count wouldn’t be easy but it proposed an exciting challenge.

Flashing Zoaster Toaster (5.11d) at Maple Canyon, UT. The Minimum Crag at Maple is line after line of steep, pumpy cobble. Nearly all of these lines are 4 and 5 star classics.

Walking back to the bus after our last day at Maple Canyon, UT. Later that evening Robyn would walk up the road to get cell service and return with the news that she had an interview the next day. This was the first step in our move to Hailey, ID.

Just under a month after my tendon injury Robyn and I were back at Maple Canyon to regain our endurance. During our stay I was able to redpoint the mega classic 49 as well as an overlooked but really cool line called The Neversweat. Although my finger wasn’t 100% these sends were a real boost! The remainder of our climbing season has been spent at the local crags here near Hailey where we spent considerable time at The Fins (2.5 hours away), Dierkes Lake (1.5 hours away) and The City of Rocks (3.5 hours away). It’s hard to imagine three crags that differ from each other in climbing styles, and rock type more than these three.

The climbing at The City can be as intimidating as it is beautiful. This is a special place, steeped in climbing lore and mystique while retaining an old school style.

The dramatic landscape and incredible formations of The Fins make this a worthwhile destination – climbing or not.

Ben working the small pockets of the stellar Ghost in a Shell (5.12b) at The Fins, ID.

Pat, Robyn and I headed down to Dierkes Lake Saturday in high spirits looking to spend another day at our local choss pile. I say this with every ounce of respect for the place, as the climbing is actually super fun and challenging. Better yet it offers a protected south-facing cliff that gets a lot of sun which means we get to climb off-and-on all winter!

Blackthing (5.11c) starts up some good holds to a left hand pinch before a stab to a layback crack. After the crux, the angle increases steadily until you find yourself ballooning around on an overhanging jug haul.

Robyn high-up on the exposed bit of Sanitary Landfill (5.10b)

We started things off with a great link up off Ziplock called Black Thing (5.11c). Another tough climb that increases the pump (and hold size) the entire way. After I hung the draws, we left the rope up and moved to Sanitary Landfill (5.10b) where our buddy Pat got on the sharp end. Pat missed Robyn and I at the University of Idaho by only a year, but befriended several of our friends from Moscow. Come to find out he lives here in town, is a rad dude, and is stoked to climb! Unfortunately for all of us, however, Pat blew a pulley on his first lead while moving to a pocket with his left hand and readjusting his feet. What really struck me in the whole event though was how positive and upbeat he remained after he new he would be sidelined for up to 6 weeks or more. His attitude remained genuinely positive, and we finished the day in good spirits. It was certainly a good testament to his character and I really respected the way he handled it.

Pat testing out his new gear on Sanitary Landfill (5.10b)

After Robyn cleaned up Sanitary Landfill, we shifted to my project Soloflex (5.12c). Soloflex presents two stout cruxes separated by a good rest on a pigeon poo pedestal. The first crux involves a mandatory foot-cut on edges along with a tough body tension move to a pocket hidden over a bulge. My first go spit me off at the lip of the roof and left me wondering if I would have the strength for a second go.

Prepping for the first roof of Soloflex (5.12c)

Moving into the lower crux on Soloflex (5.12c)

This is where I was having trouble pulling the lip of the first roof. Directly over my head at the top of the photo is the overhanging finger crack crux guarding the chains.

The second go went much smoother and I sailed through to check in at the avian-shat hotel. Checking out and entering the redpoint crux was a bit nerve racking. A steep 15ft section of finger crack guarded me from victory, and I was only sticking the exiting crux moves about half the time. The bottom of the crack has a undercling good for a painful knee-bar before launching into a lefthand finger-lock. Toe hooking the initial undercling, I was feeling remarkably good and stacked my right hand over my left reaching for the safety of the final horizontal. Traversing out the horizontal, dangerously runout diagonally from my last bolt I had one last nervous mantel before the chains. Rather than prolonging the exposure, I went for it, mantled, and SENT! Soloflex was certainly a capstone climb for me so far this season. The beta was involved and the climbing was challenging physically and trying mentally.

 Twenty 5.12′s Tick List!

Always wanted to try this one. After being treated to some Lefty’s and dropping Pat off back in Ketchum we headed home to crack open some celebration beers!

The prize. Double-wide IPA from Boulevard Brewing Company.

And now we feast! Wednesday will have us sipping Barely Brown’s growlers in Pendleton, Thursday will be spent with family in Portland, and Friday will be spent at a Blazer game witnessing Brandon Roy’s first game back at the Rose Garden! Lots of love and well wishes from us here in Hailey!

Drive safe, share time with family and friends, eat great food and don’t drink anything you can see through. Cheers!

“It hurts to sit here. My body is worked..” says Robyn via g-chat. It helps me remember back to the Monday’s of spring and summer 2009 and 2010 returning home from our weekly 5-and-a-half hour pilgrimage to The New River Gorge in West Virginia. Sitting at my desk, a fresh brewed coffee and my New River Guidebook in hand I would pour over the glossy pages and relive the weekends climbs. My body would ache and the muscles in my back and shoulders felt as if I had rolled down the steps of Old Main.  As I scanned the pages and entered my ascents into rockclimbing.com my tender pink fingers would sweat leaving soggy prints on the keys.

This summer was incredible. Hitting well over 30 different crags all over the western US and Canada and propelling us into fall. Fall for climbers is a sacred time as the temperatures dip, the humidity drops, and a summer of hard climbing begins to pay off with memorable ascents of challenging routes. Robyn realized right away that The Fins were her dream crag. She has this amazing ability to find the tiniest holds and make them look like jugs. Yelling beta up to Ben as he worked Martini (5.12a) Robyn said “Use that mono-pocket for balance..”  In climbing a mono or mono-pocket is a hole in the rock big enough for only one finger to fit. Ben hung at a draw and scanned the rock incredulous and confused. The only thing that even resembled a mono was a shallow dimple in the rock barely big enough to fit the tip of a finger. For Robyn, it was bomber. Ben used it, but was less than impressed. Both sent the route and it marked Robyn’s first 12a and Ben’s second ever 12a send.

A beautiful flower amidst the desert.

This weekend we headed back to Dierkes Lake, to get on rope and start to get a feel for the area that will likely become our go-to winter crag. At first glance Dierkes is a little rough around the edges but as you start to explore your pessimism is quickly replaced by wishing you had brought a boulder pad. The boulder problems certainly stand out, and the highly featured basalt full of huecos and honeycomb pockets is enough to make any boulderer drool. Encircling the boulders however are surprisingly good sport routes ranging from 5.7 to 5.13a, slabby to overhanging. The general style of Dierkes requires good endurance with the ability to muscle through intermittent crux sections. The rock is very three-dimensional. You wont often be climbing a flat face here, in fact, it is littered with roofs and protrusions all with surprisingly cool holds.

Robyn peering over the rim of the Snake River Canyon.

Some beautiful fall colors!

After some warm-ups at the Hidden Wall on Saturday we retraced our steps back to The Alcove, Dierkes main climbing attraction, to get on a stellar line called Get a Life (5.11a). Scrambling to a high first bolt, you encounter a less than vertical face with some reaches to small edges and a mantle onto an exposed ledge out left. The height dependent crux from the ledge depends greatly on whether you can reach the sidepull or not. I was able to, Robyn was not, so who knows what trickery would be required for her to send this section. After the crux you meander through some impressive roofs with massive holds just where you want them to an airy finish at the canyon rim. If you are in the area this is a must climb.

The Hidden Crag and (left to right) a 10c, 10a/b and 5.9 all cool!

Next up was a highly regarded 5.12a named Magma which streaked its way up the center of the Alcove. The technical crux was certainly lower in the route as you crank through some powerful laybacks on slick feet, but there are two red-point cruxes higher up. The first is a roof with good holds but no feet that requires a Chris Hull ninja high-step in a rather exposed position. The second comes at a blank corner. I was super happy to sneak by this section with my best Tommy Caldwell impression utilizing opposing-hand-smears combined with a wacky toe-hook. Certainly some of my most proud onsight beta deciphering to date. Sneaking past that section I peaked out from the last roof and realized I was closing in on my first 5.12a onsight of the year. Pumped and sweating, I crawled to a steep ledge and found a reassuring knee-bar (thanks Maple Canyon!) to compose myself before clipping the chains!

Excited after onsighting my first 5.12a of the year!

Robyn getting set to climb some cool routes at the Hidden Crag. This place get afternoon sun and has about 7 nice moderates.

That evening we spent a relaxing night eating Doc’s Pizza with Susan, Jon and Hayden back at the Paul’s house in Rupert. Also of note was the beer we had from a (new?) local brewery in Twin Falls called Von Scheidt Brewery. Unfortunately, although I wanted to give them a good review, I simply couldn’t get behind their Knutkase Amber Ale. Despite its nice smell and cool label it tasted like someone handed me a green homebrew.. Hopefully we will get a chance to visit the brewery on our next visit and give some of their other beers a chance to pick up the slack.

Back at Dierkes we warmed up on a couple short and stout 10′s to the left of the Alcove and soaked in the morning rays. Shifting around again to the main attraction we got on a STELLAR jug haul called Zipthing (5.11a) that balloons out an increasingly overhanging, pumpy roof to a vertical finish and a great view. The holds on this route were made to climb, and it would be a shame to miss this one if you are climbing at Dierkes. We were actually planning on climbing Ziplock (5.11b) but these two routes vary only by one bolt in the steepest section so we will have to come back for that one. After charging up Zipthing Robyn lowered and immediately launched up the neighboring Black Thing (5.11c) for one grande pump finale.

If you have some time and want to see a good video of some of the climbing here at Dierkes, check out this video which features some of the routes we got on and plan to do this winter:

Climbing Dierkes Lake ID from Kristopher Zigich on Vimeo.

While enjoying some pizza at the Paul’s I texted back and forth with Chris about climbing and fall projects. As of late I have had my sights set on building a solid 5.12 base by attempting to climb twenty 5.12′s in 2012, an idea that spawned from a friend of Ben’s at Maple. With my goal in view, and winter closing in, I thought it would be a good time to also start pushing my redpoint grade limit a bit, and with Dierkes likely becoming our cold-weather crag I picked Burlygirl a.k.a. Gurlymon (5.12d). This route was developed by local hardman and developer Chuck Odette. It starts by following the first four bolts of Burlymon (5.12a) through a steep bulge before a super cool traverse leads to some 5.11 climbing and sparsely featured face. A shallow three finger side pull and undercling pinch are the only holds below a smooth roof. Above the roof a large shield is the only feature for 10 feet or so before a final pull over a smaller roof on good holds to the anchors.

Since Robyn and I were to busy climbing and belaying to get pictures I found this screen grab from the video posted above. The climber is on Burlymon (5.12a) and the bolt and shield feature (crux) of Burlygirl (5.12d) are on the left.

Burlygirl and Burlymon share the first four bolts to just at the bottom of the picture below the climber before Burlygirl busts left up the face and through the shield and final roof to the chains.

After slapping around the shield in hopes of finding a good hold it was obvious there were none. The left and right edges of the shield were flaring wide pinches. Two looks over the roof, one to clip the next bolt and the other to feel around a bit turned up nothing. I returned to my rest below the roof and relaxed a bit more considering my options. One thought (and believe me the last option) was to try a left hand jam under the flaring shield. I stepped my feet up and found a decent hand jam, at this point I new I was going for it. Slapping my right hand to the side of the shield I was greeted with a terrible pointed pinch. Slapping higher it rounded out a bit and I wiggled my fingers up like an inchworm desperate for any texture. Finally I settled on a wide (think bread loaf) right hand and lunged my feet horizontally above the roof to the right pasting them on the wall. Locking off the right hand bread loaf I managed to bring my feet under me a bit more and lunge with the left to a slanted flat ledge. At this point I was sure I was off. With no good feet and two bad holds I needed to clip but couldn’t. I could feel the anchors just two bolts away but my position seemed impossible.

I was quickly getting pumped and loosing focus. In one last determined effort I squeezed my left hand as hard as I could and increased the tension in my smeared foot and made the clip. Pumped I lunged again to a decent incut and brought my feet up under the final roof. To my surprise the holds under the roof were pretty good and I was able to dangle there and compose myself before arching my back and peering over to the chains. I felt around and found two good hand holds and let my torso sink under my arms keeping my feet on the wall under the roof. I tested my reach and was about an inch shy of the shuts. I new I was close. One determined lock-off from my hardest onsight ever! I locked off hard on the good left hand above the lip and barely reached the anchor. Clipping the rope, I hung the second draw as well to add an exclamation point as I let out a celebratory yell. I could hardly believe it. I had just onsighted Gurlymon (5.12d)!! Everything really came together for me on this send. I found the exact beta I needed in order to pull the move and I held on through the pump. There is a rest right before the crux, which in a way is good and bad. It allowed me to do a brief couple surveys before committing (the good) but often when there is a huge rest before a crux the crux is often hard for the grade (the bad). Maybe my hand fit just right? Maybe I had some demonic strength and determination in that moment to clip, but either way it went. Certainly a proud send, and a big moment. Robyn has been constantly encouraging me to try harder routes, and after the success of this weekend I am feeling more motivated than ever to get on more routes in the 5.12c-5.13a range. While these grades have felt just a tad out of reach for most of the summer, the climbing season is currently under attack from the great flakes from above and now’s the time. The climbing style at Dierkes motivates me to pull hard, and I am SUPER PSYCHED to get back there throughout good weather this fall and winter. If you happen to live in the area or are passing through, be sure to hit us up for some Dierkes Thuggery – you will be glad you did!

First snow is falling in Hailey as I type!

Oh yeah, and I went down stairs this morning to do some laundry and there was a head of an elk in the garage. Luckily for Robyn (not for the rest of us) it was too dark for her to notice this morning when she got her bike out. I bet the whole neighborhood would have heard her shriek!! haha

Each year the water flowing from the Magic Reservoir into the Big Wood river just south of town here is cut off, draining the river and leaving behind a dizzying channel of water grooved basalt. This year, rumor is that the entire reservoir will be drained so that they can work on the dam. Over the last 2 weeks the water in the channel has been slowly disappearing, leaving pools full of fish (best fishing odds ever) in the low spots and exposing the eery sculpting of millions of gallons of water and grinding gravel. What’s left is a Dr. Seuss land of scoops, cracks and blobs that would please even the most creative boulderer.

The Channel. Boulders and walls of all heights snake for miles.

All it takes is a sturdy brush and a bit of holding your breath to clean up some really nice problems!

HUNDREDS of them. Dried up pools of trout.

A winter warmer for a cool night sesh in the channel. Is it me or are these even BETTER this year?

Jubels.. YUM.

I brushed and sent a cool problem that also has a “low” variation that could end up being really challenging. The direct version probably goes at V4ish.

Since the boulders are under water for half of the year, cleaning and brushing is the name of the game. Yesterday I stopped at Kings and armed myself with brushes, and we borrowed a rake from Dave to smooth out some gravel bar landings. Each season the gravel changes the shape of the problems as well as the height of the gravel bar. With no chalk, grades or guides, we are free to walk the gravel bars and clean and climb what motivates us. If you are ever in the area and are looking for a truly unique area to explore look no further, the channel seems to have endless opportunity and seemingly everything we brush turns out to be an awesome problem!