Mordor Wall December 2nd 2006

John and I climbed Mordor Wall and went hiking the next day. Much adventure was had. Full report can be found here. 

 Additional picture by me are here.

 Lafayette Hiking  November 20th 2006

Team Climbing For Serious went on the first Rainer training hike and made good time, picture are here.

Rumney  November 12th 2006

Spent the day at Rumney with Gillers and my busted hand, got a few good photos here.

HP 40 triple crooooooown  

Went to HP40 with Daryl and John for the Triple Crown and had an amazing time. I managed to pull a tendon about seven minutes into the comp but had a blast anyway. There was a live concert by Odub, free beer and coffee from Mountain Hardwear and lots of extraneous booze and partying, the pictures are here.
 

Lincoln Woods Oct 29th 2006

After a little cajoling from Daryl and a look at the beautiful weather outside i decided to go to the woods, i know i know shhhh don't tell anyone but i had a blast, and sent hard :) according to the guide i got my first V8 and another V7 according to the armchair mountaineers both problems have been downgraded so far that they might get a V-negative rating, whatever, i felt good about it

Now for the Play by Play on new dimension. First do a weird gaston over you head

Then match it and bump to the undercling rail

Then a hard move to the Axe Head hold

Which you will mostly miss so reset your hand

Do some crazy foot flagging and get low under that hold

Match that shit up

Then throw for the pocket and be precise or the razor sharp crimp will remove a finger or three. Catch it and seeeeeennnnd!

Then there is Bunny Hop, cool dyno, amazing photo, made my day

As always Daryl keeps it entertaining :) 

Don't cry buddy it'll be ok 

New River Gorge - Bridge day - Oct 20th 2006

Daryl, James, Amanda, Dennis, Christian and I all headed down to the NRG for a long weekend of good climbing good food good beer and good base jumpings. There was some good climbing, fun times on the porch and even a send here and there. Great way to end the rope season before bouldering season starts.

The lizard is the icon of our sport, he is a total bad ass able to climb insane roofs, frictions slabs, crimps sloper, you name it he hangs it, he has impeccable technique and total sac cause he freesolos everything, and he's fucking orange, hawt

So the last collage i made got lots of good reviews so this time i decided to take some pictures and make some more. This one is called "Hard Rock Emotions", its about the trials and tribulations of day one at Somersville lake.

Then i thugged it out before climbing

Somersville lake almost all drained for the winter

Fucking kneebar GET IN THE SLOT, why oh god why wont you just stick in the god damn spot, taaaaaaaakkke

Here i am demonstrating the perfect gri gri technique as well as the perfect blase attitude and air of apathy that all good french belayers have

Daryl reaching real real hard for that clip, ooOOOoo my huge plus 11 ape isn't big enough to reach thebig bad clip ooooOOOOoooo,

Daryl finished up and then has a brief but torrid love affair with this oak tree, he named her margret.

Day two breakfast at cathedral cafe, THE place for all dirtbags to eat breakfast at the new.

Then it was off to bridge day to see the crazy fuckers jump off a perfectly good bridge, that guy did NOT look qualified to do whatever it was he was doing

145,000 people went to bridge day, it was a little insane, there was a carnival on a major US highway

Seriously the landing zone is so small it is hidden by those trees

876 feet looks far away from the top

Then off to Butchers Branch which has the highest concentration of awesome and amazing of any crag i have been to

Rogers in the waning light after the long day at Butcher's

Then there was much drinking and rejoicing, handstands, pullups, cigarettes, nicknaming and obscenity, all in good measure and good fun of course

Matt look's sooooooo adorable with his little girly bow. (Amanada is a wee bit tipsy and thinks she is getting a part in Matt's next film)

Then there was a drunken collage made, this one is titled "Thank God I Woke Up With My Eyebrows"

Yes there actually was some climbing done, I am doing a little deapoint on Exoduster, in some amazing lighting

Then James earned his Mental Wings, on this stunning arete, which you of course can't see in the picture

And that concludes the 2006 roped season, for me it ended on a great note, I sent The Plug on the last burn of the day, in waning light and waxing snow, leaping for that lip with everything i had and sticking, and screaming and pulling and standing up at the top drove home how lucky i am to have something as great as climbing and also how lucky i am to have these great friends to share it with.

Peas              

Rumney October 8th 2006

Daryl and I headed up to Rumney and it was PACKED, we had to park at the library and walk, It was actually quite a nice walk and led to a great day climbing.

The long walk in wasn't a total waste as i saw this picturesque field 

The many emotions of wating. Venus in a half shell was packed and i was REAL bored

Hey look some climbing, what a novel concept. Dennis on Venus

Daryl atop charity case about to launch on High Roller, which is the best climb at Rumeny that no one does

Why bother climbing when you can pump out, hang, and take pictures

The Baker River and the valley below Rumeny in full fall foliage

 New River Gorge September 3rd 2006 

I talked to John on Tuesday, "hey want to drive to WV on Friday andhit the New?" ... "Um, ok" and the trip was planned 3 days before it began. Tony heard me talking about it an said him and Julia were in as well, so in five minutes we had 4 for the New. We left boston at about 5pmand 13 hours later rolled on up to the bridge.

The New River Bridge, second highest arch bridge in the world 

Tony "helping" Julia on the ladder at Somersville. 

I was on call that weekend and was doing some retarded server work from the base of Satisfation Guaranteed

We spent a morning down at the hole andas always i got spanked on lactic.

Chillin under lactic, listening to some baning tunes

Gillers went totally aggro and screamed her way up the roof, i have regained most of my hearing :)

Oh man doesn't this look familia, me aboutto launch into the underclings and WHHHHIIIPP!!!

Best picture ever, Julia got this just as i was clipping on Apollo

Tony starting the kneebar sequence on Apollo

Is that jacque cousteau?

The 'Dacs weekend of August 20th 2006

A plan for a trip to the Dacs had been in the works for some time and finally a date was randomly chosen out of the air at Steve's mere mention of a free weekend. Reservations were made, supplies were gathered and a brave and courageous bunch embarked on a 5 hour drive to NY granite goodness. Gavin and I arrived, set up camp and start in on the fire and beers that seem to define climbing trips. 

The fire on the first night. This is like the control in an experiment with too much wood and too much beer.

Everyone chillaxin 

 Dennis Laura John Amanda and Daryl al made it up that night with steve expected in the morning.  Dennis did the boulder problem on the boulder that is the backdrop for the coolest campsite I have ever had.  Much drinking ensued but no severe bodily harm was inflicted and we were all ready to climb the next morning.

Collage of D on the boulder in camp. Computer based collages lose a certain something seeing as there are no scissors or glues involved :( 

Dennis wins the award for retardedness this weekend (though it was hotly contested by many others) by forgetting his harness at home. Yeah i am SERIOUS. I saw him wailing uncontrolablly into his hands and felt i had to take some action. I half jokingly said i would tie a swami since Daryl was leading and he could use my harness. Igrabbed the webbing and started tying and before you know it i was convinced It wouldn't be that bad, I mean back in Gavins day they used Swami's all the time right?

Is that a Swami Belt on your pants... 

 ...Or are you just happy to see me???

Amanda Daryl and I headed off to the slabs where we made a long approach i.e. like a half mile, over rocks and wet logs, Not fun for the two of them in flip flops

 Its ok Daryl you can do it!

The belayer always looks happy on slabs since he's not leading them :) 

Amanda cruising the last few feet 

Obligatory summit photo. 

Huge day for both Daryl and Amanda. Daryl did his first multipitch leading adn his first friction slab and it was Amanda's first day trad climbing, and my first day in a Swami...

Now that we got the climbing photos out of the way we can transition into the good stuff. So we all headed back to camp and made up some delicious grub. Seeing as we drank all the beer the previous night everyone decided without talking about it to buy the beer for the night, we had so much beer that I can not describe the quantity in ounces or bottles because the number would be so large as to crash your computer when you tried to load this page. Suffice to say there was more beer then could POSSIBLY be drunken...

Gavin chops a tree as if he were Paul fucking Bunyan, it was astonishing

It started raining and we moved the tarp dangerously close to the fire so we could sit and be dry yet still feel the armth, it was perfect. About this time we decided to play some climber games. This is the one where two people attempt to place an object as far away as possible without crossing a line.

Off to a good start 

Getting a little too low

Full collapse

 We played this for a while, sang a rousing rendition of alice's restraunt and recounted various acts of courage and chivalry, about this time the ungodly quantity of beer was making for some interesting photography...

John with a big stupid grin

 Yes Gavin you are the antichrist

Does steve always look the goofy? CHUG DARYL CHUG

Awww is Amanda camera shy? You can see Daryl's shock and awe if you look closely

Dennis hasn't been this drunk since his bachelor party

Remember the picture of the little fire  from the top of this section? Yeah i am speechless as well, we were personally responsible for wiping out three sub species of deciduous tree...

Moby Grape Cannon June 16th 2006 

John and I did Moby Grape to break John's cherry. I performed poorly on Reppy's as per usual. 

John heads up after conquering the triangle roof 

Great view of Whitney G 

I start up the Fickle Finer of Fate. I wonder when this thing is gonna come off?  Man that is gonna suck for someone...

I now owe the flake dinner :)

All natural tree based protection, available in seed form ready in 15 to 30 years 

Route 93 heading back to MA

What the FUCK, I don't recognise this at all

Over the roof where my ropes get stuck. again.

100 degree days and 100% sunshine and 0% water in our bottles make me want to die

But we made it 

The leftovers of the old man on the hike down

Acadia Maine Memorial Day 2006

The cave at the right edge of Thunder Hole has one of the best problems in Acadi in my opinion

Derek shows us how to do it right

Thunder hole dyno, willy got 'da ups 

Daryl as always providing comic relief 

I join in the shenanigans and almost fall off the edge

Some definite picture posing on the easy overhang. Someone might be faking this crack climb by laying on the ground :)

Multiple attempts on this roof fail, its not hard, but we are pent and the landing is baaad 

 Yeah gavin setting up this tarp was hilarious

 Then he needs some alone time with his gear

Sand beach makes average photographers into experts

Time to get serious, Derek and i scoping it out at great head

Nothing like the surf splashing around while climbing. It adds an amazing atmosphere 

NIGHT 

BOULDERING

GREAT HEAD CAVE 

Chris Daryl and I ate 2 quarts of mashed potatoes 2 quarts of vegetables and 1 pound of steak each, it was hot 

 Chris and Daryl brave the harsh Maine weather, full scotish conditions

 Not a bad place to be belay slave for the day 

Crowded day at Otter Cliff 

PULL FASTER CAPTAIN!! 

Gavin starts the overhangs...

And then he starts the hangs :)

Steve is in for some of the same

Steve runs up the crack, while Daryl takes a crack at the overhang

i think this is the best climbing picture i have ever taken. Chris and i on precipice on a quiet quiet tuesday

Problems at P-Tuck April 30th 2006

So I went to P-tuck to climb alone, which i like to do there. I figured i could sneak in one more weekend before the bugs. I was WRONG! It was so bad I gave up took a few pictures of some of the best problems and had to RUN FOR MY LIFE!! Godn damn mosquitos. 

 <--Fuck the Method

General Lee --> 

<-- Cool V3 Dyno

Cool V1 Behind FTM -->

Warm up Boulder Left and Right 

The Scoop 

Rumney April 17th 2006

Dennis Mike and I went to Rumney. We started at triple corners and then headed up to the hinterlands. Grabbed some great photos.

Mike ain't takin' no shit from this climb

Undercling that shit like you mean it

What an attentive belayer

Mike starting out on his new project "The man with the hueco in his tights" Did you know the huecos are carved out by a small species of woodpecker called the hueco bird for nesting?

And now for some air ballet

Great Prospective of this climb. You really get an idea how steep it is.

I found this cool color highlight mode and blue seemed the perfect color for Mike after his burns on Hueco

Dennis bleeds like a little GIIIRRRLLLLLL!!!!

The start of the 5.7 leading up to Giant man. Color highlighting in full effect

Cool shots of Mike haeding up to the Giant Man roof.

Dennis going agrro style on the holds just before the final "easy" slab to the chains

Lincoln Woods April 15th 2006 

 I went to Lincoln Woods with John and forgot my camera but John got a cool pic of me on heart of glass

Pawtuckaway April 8th 2006

So here are the pictures but i don't have time to label them now i'll do that later i'm wicked busy at work. Now John and Daryl leave me the FUCk alone :) EDIT: All the pictures have captions now, Enjoy

matt

Walking down the  road to Boulder Natural. The gate was closed so we were force into an epic 1.5 mile approach

This is John's very first Boulder problem EVER!

John thinks climbing V0- slabs is bad ass :-/

Daryl lookin serious on the triangle crimp

You can't help taking pictures of the forest at P-tuck.

Kalbro takes amazing photos, A similar photo was in Cimbing Magazine a few months ago.

John topping out Kalbro. Its way harder then it looks 

Was that my pulley that just popped? Nope it was my knuckle but i fell off anyway.

The cool swamp behind overlook 

Does anyone know how the trees get grown in the swamp? Does the water fill in after the trees grow? Did the swamp at one time dry out to let the trees go? Its a mystery... 

Daryl looks happy as he starts overlook

But looks much less happy after a few minutes, I made him pose for photos

John flashing overlooked,after that we put him on Zap to deflate his HUGE ego.

We eneded the day with some amazing soup at loaf and ladle in exeter, there was an amazing sunset over the river

Hiking with Dennis and Laura April 2nd '06 

Dennis Laura and I decided to take a chill day and hike Mt Monadanock. Good chill times and as always a great hike. We saw this freak of a dude in FULL mountainerring gear. He was NOT training. He was SERIOUS 

I'm not scared i'm just prepared

Posing for the new camera

Summit shot 

Chillin at 3000 feet, i got a little altitude sick... 

 So i figured out the digital macro feature on my camera, this little leave picture was SWEET

First Post on my new Webspace 

I just got in on the beta of google's new webhosting project. Its pretty cool and they gave me 100mb of space to make a web site. I'm basically going to use it to keep a photo journal of all my climbing now that I have a new camera.  I'm going to do some catching up in this first post and put up a bunch of older climbing photos. 

peas

matt 

EDIT: so this was my first post at one time, i'm leaving it there for historical record keeping. There are lots of new picturesbelow here that were posted after this because I am keeping everything in chronilogical order.

New River Gorge September '05

Derek, Willey, Dave, Kristen, Chris and I went to the New and managed to get in some amazing climbing. Temps were great, people were strong and things went down.

Roger runs the climbers campsite at the New. He is basically the coolest guy in West Virginia. 

Derek on Boing

Everyone hanging out at the base of Lactic Acid Bath 

Derek contorting himself into positions not posible by the average human

Willey whipping like a man

Me chalking up on Lactic 

The boys on top of endless wall 

The tradition is to take a photo for Roger's wall when you leave the New. We had Roger snap one for us too.

Lincolon Woods Fall '04

Dennis Gavin Adam Dave and I went to Pawtuckaway during the start of hunting season. We decided we didn't need blzae orange. Then on the way in we were not once but twice scared shitless by hunters with large caliber rifles lumbering half drunk in the woods. We decided to get some hats :)

The startof the fun on overlooked

The double toe hooks were hurting me in a way I can't describe

Finally I maek the lip and top out before peeling off the V0 finish and taking and epic fall half on and half off the pads.

Great spots by all my spotters

Horse Pens Nov 2004

Horse Pens photos from when Daryl and I went there a long time ago. 

This is Turtle rock, I think. it was a little wet 

Elise decided that standing in knee deep water was a bad idea in a lightning storm 

I decided against the lightning as well. In front of millipede

Standard Morning, cooking breakfast in the rain under our little tin roof

Awsome moon over Alabama

Feel the pump

Rumney July 2004

Here is one picture of Dennis on Short Vicouse Corner at Rumney at the left end of kennel wall. Its a sandbagged 12a but its fucking sweet. 

Was Potrero Really this long ago? Damn posting this almost three years later.  I miss this place so much, i gotta get back this year for the 06/07 season

The first night in potrero we ate 56 tacos and had about 6 beers. Total price about 2.75 a piece with a 30% tip. God i love Mexico

Arriving in Potrero is staggering. El Toro and hundreds and thousands of other formations ring this valley

The scale o El Toro is so large you lose perspective of distance

Hundred foot tall spires bolted on all sides 

Well over 3000 feet of rock taken from across the valley at about 1500 feet

Back of El Toro from a different angle in better light, you can see the overhanging orange "Outrage" wall

This is the small climbers village in the foreground, Sabinas Hidalgo is on the smog in the back surronded by mountains on all sides

Top of Snot Girlz, many pitches (11 i think) of 5.9 over some exciting rock lead to te summit.

Snot Girlz was an exciting climb Dennis and i got up at the ass crack of dawn to be the first party on it.  We climbed well until pitch 8 or something like that. At the belay Dennis let go of a quickdraw he thought was clipped and it went flying into the void, it took a looooong time for it to hit the ground. I started the next pitch and got to a refrigerator door sized block balanced on a slopy ledge. This was covered in chalk. I tried pulling on it and the entire thing alarmingly flexed out towards me. Dennis and I did some shenaniganed boot leg aid to get around it and finished in short order. The Rap route is no down the actual route because there is a lot of traversing. So one rap from the ground when we pull our rope it get stuck. REAL stuck. we flick we pull we swing everything and no go. We can't climb up to it because there are no bolts and no hold on the rap route. I get pissed and gove one more laxidazical flick and look up. I look up at a dinnerplate of limestone barreling at us like a saw blade. We yell rock and suck against the wall and i take a direct hit in the back. The rock got me dead center in the camel back and the water absorbed almost all the impact. No harm no foul i suppose, and we rapped to the ground to the awaiting celebratory beers.

 Surfer Rosa is AMAZING, go to Mexico and do this climb, i'm serious, if you don't climb learn to climb then go do it

Dennis Gavin and Adam did supernova a sweet 11a in this cove type thing

Adam had to eat dinner twice after 10+ pitches

So on the way to Mexico i got the best seat on the plane. I wassquished next to a 500 pound southern black woman that was fanning herself and saying "oh mercy me"  she also had a case of a rare airborne disease ghonnaherpeshyphillaluffagus she decided to cough all over me and get me sick on my vacation, i have not forgiven her. I ended up with a HIGH fever for days, i was so weak i couldn't open my nalgene to drink, i halucinated about a dog trying to save me. At one point i walked into the valley during the day to watch a helicopter resuce when a dude broke his femur, and i passed out on the side of a hill, some mexican kids found me and poked me awake with a stick, they were yelling to their sister that they found a dead gringo, i snapped awake and scared the crap out of them, they asked me what i was doing and told them i was hiding they thought it was a game and left me there to die...

I took a self portrait because i was sure i was going to die and wanted to record my last moments on earth

Carta Blana Remedy of all ills

So one morning Gilberto (the old man who ran the ranch) saw me making some tea and asked me if i was ok, i told him i was all kinds of sick, he said, not to worry he had an old mexican  remedy to fix me.  he takes me in his house and takes a clay jar down of the top shelf, he pours four small glasses of amber liquids, he then grabs two 40s of carta blanca out of the fridge opens them both and puts them in the microwave on high for 5 minutes, when they are done he wraps them in towels and hands me one, he grabs a glass of what turns out to be home made mezcal and we shoot it, then he makes me chug a boiling hot 40, then we do another shot, he asks if i feel better but i am too drunk to understand human speech and i go pass out on the grass, god i love mexico

Little 'churro

My little churro, i adopted this kitten when i was in mexico i bought it food and it slept in the vestibule of my tent and sometimes onthe grass with me, all the other cats were mean to little churro so i had to take care of her.

 The old man on his donkey

So while i was sick i had a lot of time, every morning i would get some breakfast and try to walk into the canyon and back out. This guy would ride his donkey into the desert every morning and out every night, we are not talking like "oh a little sand" desert we are talking full fledged mother fucking desert, what the hell was he doing out there?

Homero's is one of two places to eat in Potrero, Patty the chef is amazing, she also took care of me a bit when i was sick

Milton is a fixture in Potrero he runs Homero's and took me to the airport when i left, he also swung by his mothers house on the way home and had her make me breakfast

The spires are something special, i climbed them 4 times while in mexico worth it every time

Will this pitch EVER end? I'm looking tired heading up the little side cliff to the right of El Toro

Plutonia is a bouldering area inside a HUGE limestone cave at the abse of El Toro, bring the headlamps and the lanterns cause there ain't no light in here, some of the coolest bouldering i've ever done

Outside the cave

Getting deeper

The crawl space into the cave

Yeah bouldering inside a limstone cave is as sick as it sounds

All the Mexican rock finally wears us out, clmibing on Potrero is just a climbing vacation its a mexican vacation so relax 

Lincoln Woods July 2003

This is here just to show my old home made bouldering pad. 

"...you really climb for the hell of it" Sir Edmund Hillary