Hot, hot, hot.

Surprise, surprise, Arizona is hot during the summer, even if you're not in the valley. The valley is currently about to reach a disgusting high of 117 degree Fahrenheit, and Flagstaff is supposed to hit up to 95 degrees F. To no one's surprise, numerous forests around the state are on fire, and the firefighters are out trying to fight it. I'm not educated nor am I well-versed at all in this topic, but I think that this year seems a bit better than last summer. Around this time last year, I remember news of an idiot burning toilet paper instead of packing it out near Hobo Jungle, and the result was an extremely massive fire very close to Flagstaff, which also made the flooding effects of monsoons in the area that much more drastic last summer. It also had the unfortunate side effect of delaying a lot of climbing related plans, but that's a minor concern. Anyways, it seems to me that no one is in a hurry to create an incident of similar magnitude this year *fingers crossed* so I guess that's a positive. You can check AZ's emergency bulletin here.

Anyways, more on a topic that I'm more familiar with: Climbing. It's only been about a week since I last updated, but it feels like a lot has happened. Various friends have been taking down their projects, and it's been fun just to be along for the ride, so here comes all the words:

The day before the fourth of July, I spent the night (and subsequent day) at the draw with Kim W. and Colton L, where I gave them the tour around the area. They both got their first taste of the draw on The Fin, and I decided to lap Meateater. To my pleasant surprise, I discovered that flipping my feet position for the bicycle, as shown in the picture below, ended up making the problem feel so much easier than it ever did. Climbs are worth repeating. I think we spend too much time figuring out the dance on rock, to only do it once. I then flailed on Carnivore Direct, and then we went back to camp, had ramen, and that was that. The next day, we wandered around the draw, climbing some of the vertical boulder problems, and then endured a character-building session at Mars Roof with Evan S.

Yours truly taking a lap on Meateater. Photo by Colton L.

There was a decent amount of rampaging on Saturday. On Friday night, I ended up camping with Evan and Noah W. at the draw, and upon Saturday morning, Evan and I trudged out to Mars Roof, where I was able to finish my vanity project, which is to climb a line on Mars Roof with all 3 of my roof climbing shoes. I was able to cinch a repeat of The Girl on my 3rd attempt of the day. Now I know that if I ever can't do something, it's most definitely me, and not the shoe. We then hurried over to Purple Sage Rd. to meet Bobby, who wanted to head out to Tony's Roof. The roof is best described as Priest Draw like movement on Cherry Canyon like stone. The line has some front lever-ish like movements, and then eases up to a finish on hero jugs. Here's a video:

Bobby was able to cruise the line, getting it done on his first go from the bottom, nice work Bobby! I was able to repeat shortly thereafter, and Evan, who was suffering from a finger-related injury, was able to figure out the sequence. We then examined a few other lines on the roof: 1) a possible right exit on the right side of the roof via a crack that starts at the back, 2) A right entrance into Tony's Roof using a Floorpie-esque pod and a very cool foot-first move, and 3) Tony's Roof Direct heading into the right exit. If you fell exiting at the right, it would be a big fall, but it should be protectable. I'm personally more psyched on the right entrance and the direct line, while Bobby seemed more excited by the roof crack. 

Bobby cruising Tony's Roof

Taking another lap. All photos of me from a video by Evan S.

New beta, going open hips instead of closed. Much better.

A skull (near the roof)

Shows the way

The rest of the day was spent working projects and supporting friends. We found that 1) The Salton Sea could be treated as a (sharp) spray-wall of sorts for roof climbing. There are so many exits and variations on the boulder, that it could be used as good training if we were not feeling up for the bigger/taller/harder roofs. There are so many possible lines. 2) Josh was able to take out Clampdown, the king line of the Underhill. I figured out a possible method on End to End. 

Video from Bobby

Although I had done what felt like very little climbing on Saturday, I was basically on my feet for 18 hours. Nevertheless, I did a small solo session at Mars Roof the next morning, where I made progress on one of my projects, The Girl from Ipanema, but I was too tired to give any solid efforts in the suffocating heat (not to mention, a lack of pads). In order to not have it feel like a waste of a day, I did some fitness laps on the Anorexic Roof and Badass Roof with Kim E., Shelli, Sav, and Kevin F, and that was that. 

I'm still quite sore. With how difficult temperatures are making sessions right now, I'm thinking of taking it easy for the next month or so. Time will tell how well this works out.