Somewhere deep in the South Fork of Shoshone Canyon near Cody, WY. 

Anya in the lower bowl below the second pitch of "Grandma's Chicken" near Cody, WY. 

Joel making things interesting on "Grandma's Chicken" in Cody, WY. 

4 feet 3 days

Well it snowed 4 feet last week and I was able to get out to Red Lodge twice and Bridger Bowl once. Best snowboarding of my rather young montana life. Real eager to get out and climb but it looks like we're getting another dumping this week, might head down to Cody for one last bout with the south fork ice.

S N O W

Yup, snow all over the mountains. When you have a choice between slogging through powder all day or riding down it, you take the latter. Rode my board solo up at Red Lodge this morning finding a good foot or more of the fresh stuff, while Anya ran a 5K in town.

If anyone needs a job we (CTA) have 42 (yes, that's forty-two) openings accross the northwest. Please take one, they want us to work more OT.

Wondering how big they let a blog page get? So why not post some more photos???

RETRO: a rare lonely alpine wall in the tetons; the north face of Buck Mountain 11938' (AD+) climbed early July 2004. 

RETRO: early may 2004 on Rock Wars (5.10) one of Kentucky's finest crack routes. 

RETRO: early july 2004 in the tetons fighting the wind with Peter from SanFran and Nate from Boone, NC. 

Strawberry and Banana flexing in front of all the steep diamonds they tore up on Saturday. 

Red Hot Red Lodge

We partied up Anya birthday this weekend with 6 crazy folks from accross the continent. Sarah showed up snowboard in hand ready to shred and even the infamous Seftick, cursing the midwest the whole time, dropped into our little cabin at 1:30 in the morning Saturday after leaving straight from his mid-term exam at the U. We rode Red Lodge Mountain all day Saturday only to wonder why Sheldon wasn't at the apres ski bar with us. Low and behold he was in the e-room, but he recovered quickly and off to the hot tub it was. Sunday I took Seftick up the classic Red Lodge ice climb "Silver Falls" (WI4) which with the warm weather proved to be more of a chinese water torture test. I'd have photos if it wern't for my unorthodox method of transferring the camera down to a lower elevation.

Twenty something man lounging next to a past piece of artwork in a large town on a Sunday morning. 

When you're back in your old neighborhood......

It was a fast weekend. Intellectual conversation dropped like rain. Saw a lot of good old friends thursday night, time flew too fast, didn't get to finish a lot of stories, until next time. Modest Mouse turned out to be impressive instrumentalist, reworking their live songs much like Radiohead.

Urban life runs fast except when you're stuck on the train. Really though, I felt as if the place has stayed the same. Kind of like not watching TV for a year and finding out you missed nothing. Of couse, what's important is how the people have grown...

Chicago traffic was it's usual rough self.

Leading up the first pitch of the massive "High on Boulder" (WI4) near Cody, WY. We started the day with wet fog and falling snow. 

Cody Ice Festival

Went down to Cody friday night to test out the Cody Ice festival. We had a good time, enjoyed the Saturday night slideshow best, but we can go down there whenever we want and not have to be nickeled and dimed for festival fees (come on! friday night's $15 per person entertainment fee got us a couple of glasses of FOAMY beer and a climbing DVD from someone's home collection!) and always with less crowds. Met some cool people though, and I guess our festival fees went to good organizations like the American Alpine Club and the Access Fund. As always, we did some great routes and look forward to getting back down there again in March.

This upcoming weekend I'll be in Chicago catching up with old friends on a fast year, some Modest Mouse, and maybe a little indoor climbing, look around, you might see me.

With the skies clearing, Fabrizio (left) and Joel (right) head up the crux second pitch of "High on Boulder" (WI4) Cody, WY.

Anya cleaning up on "High on Boulder" (WI4) Cody, WY. 

Joel leading up a rockband pitch on "Reality Strikes" (WI3) Cody, WY. 

Joel on "Reality Stikes" (WI3) Cody, WY. 

Anya telling you it may be cold up here but she doesn't care.