Two days of cold weather, one a great deal colder (and further north) than the other...

Here's a few from a cloudy day seeking waterfalls at Moss Rock Preserve.

Rainy day up at Rocktown yesterday. Luckily for us, this side of the mountain is home to Petty Johns Cave! 6.5 miles long, 240 feet deep and comfortably set at a constant 58 degrees! Here's some shot's of the entrance and the first series of rooms you come too, known as 'the freeway'. Unfortunately, this was as far as my camera made it. With passages suitably named 'valley of yuk' and 'pulverizer squeeze', I decided this wasn't exactly the expedition for the d300, but next time I'll be prepared with a lovely little point and shoot that will only cost me a few bucks if it gets screwed up.




*note* the flashes of light in this photo are me running around, sparking the flash as to try to get as much of the room illuminated in 30 seconds.

Now it's off to the Citadel for some more climbing. Unfortunately, hunting week at Rocktown has started, so there's no climbing till Sunday, unless you're willing to pay a hefty ticket and/or get shot at by deer hunters. We figure we'll just go climb elsewhere, then get home to re-up on some money before heading out west...

Today, David and I took a trip to the Biltmore Estate. Lucky for us, some buddies from back home were in town celebrating their engagement, and were nice enough to hook us up with their passes once they left, saving David and I $70 each! America's largest home has the largest price tag attached. Here's a few from around the grounds.







Now on to the garden house.









And now for our parting shots.







That's it for today...

Starry starry night...

today was yet another day devoted to exploring our surroundings. We parked David's van just up the road from Miguel's Pizza, then drove Bryson's car up to the parking lot at Rock Bridge, over 18 miles away. That's where the hike began. I made it from the Rock Bridge to Chimney Rock, about 6.3 miles away, then turned around and hiked 6.3 miles back to Bryson's car at sunset. The rest of the hike has plenty of hidden arches and waterfalls to take pictures of, but seeing as the sun had gone down and there was no chance of getting any decent shots of any of these, I decided not to lug my camera and tripod the rest of the way. Now here I sit, eating a tasty BBQ chicken pizza from Miguel's, drinking a cold, frothy beverage and uploading the story and photo's of today to my blog while Bryson and David trek through the gorge in the dark. Have fun guys!









That's it for today. With any luck, we'll be back on the rock tomorrow.

Well, it would appear that during the winter, there is absolutely no point in the day where the north face of Half Moon gets direct sunlight, so that perfect landscape shot I've been building up for the past 2 days is a no go, at least till summer, when I'll be 3000 miles away. Anyway, here's the best shot I ended up getting of Half Moon, followed by a few extras from the Rock Bridge and Creation Falls, all in the east gorge.







and here's one of this evening's sunset from atop Chimney Rock. I've got a sequence of shots to piece together into a panoramic, but until I get photoshop, I'm only going to give you one of the 4 frames, and believe me, the other 3 REALLY set the picture off!

Not much climbing over the weekend, but we still managed to keep ourselves entertained once we realized we had access to mountain bikes, shovels, rakes, and an excessively large mound of dirt. I managed to rip one of the 3 pair of jeans I brought, but other than that, everyone walked away unscathed.





After a much needed lazy weekend, we kicked off the climbing week on 2 trad routes. For those of you who aren't to sure what trad (or traditional) climbing is, it's a much less invasive style where the climber doesn't clip into bolts drilled into the rock face, but instead places their own gear in the natural features of the wall, then clips their rope in to that.
The climbers 'rack' or gear consists of nuts (a) and cams (b). These are what keeps the climber from hitting the ground if they fall.

(a)

(b)

With that bit of knowledge, I now give you shots from trad monday.







Now for the randoms of the week







and just a few more that scream Kentucky...

Over the past few weeks, I've come to the conclusion that i'm just not that into sport climbing. Not yet, at least. It's not that I don't want to do it, but the many years of strict bouldering have prepared me more for hitting the ground than swinging back into the rock. I know it get's easier with time, and I have to take the falls in order to become comfortable with it, but I'm just not really all that concerned about it, so for now, you can keep your ropes, give me some boulders!!!

With that said, I've been spending the past few days paying more attention to my surroundings than the crags. Here's some of what I've gotten.











Don't worry though, just because I don't have the motivation to scurry up 100 foot faces, doesn't mean that I'm gonna stop taking shots of everyone else doing it! More photo's from classic lines at The Red, on the way.

Got an early start this morning and actually went and checked out the gorge for the first time from the scenic highroad. Here's a few shots, but there's definitely more to it than I've seen. Should be getting some pretty good one's over the next few weeks.





After that, it was time for a hearty breakfast from the Shell station, then off to Left Flank. We were still able to catch the early morning light, which made the 10 minute approach rather enjoyable, then started the day on two of the most pristine lines at the crag. To defy the laws of tradition, and To many puppies.







Rain day tomorrow. Guess it's time to get a pack of cards or something...

I'm going to start this post by apologizing to everyone for keeping you in the dark over the past week. We arrived at Red River Gorge this past Monday, and since then, we've been battling against the location for phone service and wifi. Anyway, we're here, base camp at the gorge has been set up, and the process of getting ridiculously stupid strong on ropes has begun... for Bryson and David. I had a little encounter with a mountain wasp my first day and it would appear that I'm allergic.





Swelling finally went away, but only after I spent the week doped up on benadryl. Here's camp and bouldering on the hardest boulder problem in the guide book.