Some Photos from Joes / Homeward Bound?

Hey everyone,

So we left jackson and headed south into Utah to Joe's Valley; which is loaded with killer sandstone boulders.  Every single line is stellar, and the temps were awesome.

On our first day we were climbing at a warmup area, when we ran into friends from hueco; Jesse, Angus, Brad and Vera. I was psyched! it was great to see some familiar faces, especially after we were bombarded minutes before by some provo dudebros.  i sent my second v7, planet of the apes, an awesome line that didnt let up, "wills of fire" the classic v6 at joes, and one of the best lines of my life, as well as "kelly's arete" and "Kill by numbers" both of which go at v5 and many other beautiful lines.

We met new friends as well, Tom and Charlotte from Leeds, who were on a month trip to joes and bishop, and they were awesome to climb with.  We also met Dave and Matt, who were very cool dudes.  it was just great to have a crew of people who were psyched despite the cold cold weather. 

On Thursday, we started out the morning at the food ranch, the hangout on rest days, and left to climb at around noon.  It wasn't until friday afternoon that Eric realized his laptop was missing.  He went to the food ranch to see if it was there, but it wasn't.  so he basically wrote it off.  when we pulled into town yesterday (saturday) he got a text from some chick who said she had it.  but she was in class until 430 (mind you it was 1:00) so we waited, postponing our leave for breck.  430 turned into 6pm and we finally got the damned laptop, which despite flying off of the jeep, because he left it on top (Remind anyone of other instances?) still works pretty well, its just pretty broken.

We pulled into breck at midnight and were welcomed by conrad, and a Kyle Hollingsworth show, a good way to start the stint in breck.

I cant believe we are heading home on thursday morning, and driving straight through the 27 hour haul home.  God save us.  Its been an incredible ride, and i am probably going to be doing it next winter.  This will probably be the last post, but who knows i may adopt this as a photo journal.

Peace!

(the last two boulders are just awesome, despite not sending them i put up the photos to show the variety of joes)

Check out Angus's Blog for some sick photos and videos from this season
Vagabond Climber

Photo: Angus Lewis

"Planet of the Apes"

Eric working "Planet of the Apes"

Lee on "Wills of Fire"

"Water Paintings" v7
 Photo: Angus Lewis

"Maxipad" v5

lemme get them corduroys brah!

hey there my names lee,
 so we left tahoe on saturday, and initially planned on making it to portland by 9ish.  on a two lane road in the middle of north california, we were pulled over for no reason, and the police officer was looking for something to cite us on.  He was shaking the jeep asking about how the suspension was going to hold up, and we told him we would make it because we made it this far.  that is when irony set in.  We drove about 45 mins from our blue suited friend, hit a bump and heard a loud noise out of the back of the jeep.  both of us looked at eachother and were freaked out.  we pulled over, to see that the wheel was disconnected from the hub.  We were lucky to be on a back road and not the highway, but nonetheless it was stressful.  We got out to realize we sheared a lug bolt, but luckily due to the aluminum spacers, (that were probably the original issue) only one bolt sheared and we were able to throw the wheel back on and keep moving.  But due to our delay we decided to go to bend, not a hard decision.  We went to the silvermoon brewery, and caught a bluegrass band.  It was a cool town, lots of cool people, and we stayed at the walmart astoria that night.  (parking lot).

The next morning we headed to portland to check it out and get some food, and it was an awesome town.  It is exactly like portlandia for all of those who watch it.  we made it to seattle around 6.

Howdy Yall

Coming from the land of Jackson Wyoming. So we had to change plans a little bit due to the weather at Mt Baker and decided to head to Jackson Hole a little bit early.  Even though Seattle's weather is a pretty depressing in the winter, it was great to stay with a good friend Tim wenner. His mother and him fed us allowed our dirt bagging selves to shower and stay with them for a couple days. We tried making it to the Olympic National Forest to see the only rain forest in the U.S.  We never made it. Because of the lack of direction and laziness on everyone's part we drove about 3 hours to find a truck abandoned in a park in a forest, gutted and stripped by the forest dwellers (may or may not be human).  On a successful not we saw a herd of elk. . . that lee scared away by slipping on a log... from 30 yards away.

On the 12th we left for Jackson hole, driving through Idaho, Montana, and a little bit of wyoming. Idaho never seems to get talked about a lot but it is a very beautiful state. The forests on the rolling mountains seem to all run into either a river or lake at some point and it made for the one of the more scenic drives we have had since the coastal drive in California. Montana is a state of mountains and more mountains. Everything in Montana seems like its a full on backcountry exploration and i plan on making some more trips to that state.

We arrived in J hole about midnight, posted up in the jeep in a hotel parking lot and successfully rolled out in the morning without any hassle from the employee's.  Our main goal for this trip was to ride with our friend and manager from buckmans, Chabot. Riding here has been fun in full on spring conditions. Yesterday, the 14th, Chris Mechanish and i were able to meet up with a local rider and may have ripped the hardest lines for both of us including a 25' and 30' cliff drops. It was good to be pushed to my limits again and have some one to ride with during the run. We have been riding and staying with the entire Buckmans Crew for the past few days and its been great to get out with everyone and get to know them a little better. Thank you to Mr. and Mrs Buckman for dinner last night and to everyone in the Chabot house for putting us up.

Today we head to Joe's Valley in Utah. I believe it is in between Moab and SLC. Great climbing down there. We will be there for about a week then its to Breckenridge then home!
Time is moving too fast now. . . .

Eric Setting up at Squaw

Lee getting fresh at Homewood

Roadside Breakdown

Jurassic Park?

Buckman's Jackson Hole Crew

 

Whats this White Crap?

Hey Friends,

Today we are relaxing in Nat's Lake Tahoe house, finally getting some rest after three days of hard pow boarding.

We left bishop on tuesday? night and arrived around 11pm in tahoe city to a snow storm.  a stark difference from the 70 degree and sunny day we just left from.  The last week of bishop was filled with projecting.  We climbed a few days at the happy's so eric could work "The Hulk" including a night session, and climbed the rest of the days at the milks.  unfortunately for me, i did not send my project, "High Plains Drifter" due to the last move crux that thwarted me every time.  Its a long sustained line with crimps that wear your fingers raw, so i could only give it a few solid attempts each day.  I was psyched on the line and really wanted it to go, but sometimes that's how it goes.  it looks like ill have to come back next winter... damn. Eric sent his project the last day in bishop, it was awesome.

Bishop is a great town and once again we met some awesome people from the area who made the trip quite a bit of fun, we also ran into friends from other areas we've been.  Its an awesome feeling to be a part of a community that enables friendship in so many different areas, all due to the fact that we climb rocks.  Ive met people on this trip who i will never forget.

So tahoe is an awesome place, we were welcomed into a warm house filled with more great people; sans nat of course.  The first day we went to Alpine and caught the freshest snow, rode beautiful glades, and dropped some fun cliffs. that night we went to see moe. and it was an awesome first day.  the second day eric and i went to squaw, which is an impressive mountain.  Its filled with natural terrain that will accommodate any level of skier,  ranging up to todays most important backcountry riders and skiers.  it was wild.   The third day we went to homewood, and caught some of the best glades of the trip, due to the untracked lines, and tight trees.  It was stellar, ive never taken so many fresh lines in my life.  so many faceshots.

Today we are leaving tahoe to head to portlandia and then to seattle, and then to mt baker.  its going to be an interesting week of traveling.  

Auf Weidersein
Lee

Lee on High Plains Drifter

Lee on Done with the South

Lee, Scooter, Garreth, Pat and Roy on Grandma Peabody

Eric sussing out beta during the night session on the Hulk