12,000+ Miles in less than Five Months

Since Jan 9, we've taken dozens of trips to climb from Salt Lake City, including several to Moe's Valley (St. George, Utah), two to Bishop, California, one to Moab and Kane Springs Canyon, three to Bozeman, Montana, and a *buttload* to Joe's Valley.

I'm about to leave Salt Lake City for the summer. I'll spend the first month in Ten Sleep, Wyoming trying to remind my forearms how to climb more than ten moves at a time. After that, I'll head to Sweden where I'll hopefully get to boulder, trad climb, and sport climb.

JOE'S VALLEY, UTAH

David sending Beyond Live (Gustavo Moser photo).

Sucking in Joe's 3 from David Sjoquist on Vimeo.

BISHOP, CALIFORNIA

Bishop from David Sjoquist on Vimeo.

MOAB: KANE SPRINGS CANYON, UTAH

MOE'S VALLEY, UTAH

Yankee Jim Canyon, Montana

We decided to spend the last week of May up in Montana with the family -but we've been plagued by rain and sickness for the bulk of the trip. Luckily, a short glimpse of sun gave us the chance to go out and take a tour of the local bouldering with "the last cowboy".

The Last Cowboy from David Sjoquist on Vimeo.

Season Finale: Sucking in Joe's

Sucking in Joe's 4 from David Sjoquist on Vimeo.

Sucking in Utah: Everyone's Favorite Series Goes State-Wide

Well, it turns out that we're not the only ones sucking in Joe's. The weather also sucks in Joe's sometimes -and recently it's been either so rainy or so hot that we've been unable to climb at all or unable to climb to the top of anything.

And really the weather hasn't even been that bad. But it's definitely starting to seem like bouldering season is over in this part of the world.

Anyway- we didn't feel like driving all the way to Joe's again today -so we kept it local and ran immediately into friends Myranda "I'm Watching You" Bair, Arthur Debowski, and Jason Danforth all trying to drag their bodies up the boulders of Little Cottonwood Canyon.

The conditions in Little were certainly far from "sending temps", but we climbed the hell out of that place. And when we ran out of fingertip skin, we played fun and invasive games with soothing banana peels.

Untitled from David Sjoquist on Vimeo.

"Sucking in Joe's III"

The video has arrived!

Sucking in Joe's 3 from David Sjoquist on Vimeo.

Joe's Valley Fri + Sat

Here's a video David made about the weekend's trip. Pretty fun- though it was my turn for "sucking in Joe's" this time.

Anyway- it was great for the soul to see some sun and run into + climb with friends.

Sucking in Joe's 2 from David Sjoquist on Vimeo.

Video of the Trip

Here's a movie that David made from our 1.5-day, sprint trip to Joe's Valley.

Sucking in Joe's from David Sjoquist on Vimeo.

Not all climbing movies have to be cool.

Bishop Collage

Bishop from David Sjoquist on Vimeo.

Here's a video of some of the recent trips' climbing by David Sjoquist. Enjoy!

Bishop: Making the Best of Increasingly Harsh Weather

When we left Salt Lake for a ~12-day trip to Bishop, the weather looked perfect. Even a bit too warm for bouldering. But as soon as we arrived, so to did a massive storm front with persistent, strong winds, snow, rain, and more winds.

Weather.com: "Blasted in the West: Super Wet and Windy West Coast"

Liesel chowing down on her favorite: sandwiches.

So that's what all the wind was bringing in: Morning in The Buttermilks after our first bad storm (Saturday morning).

Time to head down to the Tablelands.

Cooking breakfast on the way up to The Sads. Where I'm really excited to climb because its lack of crimpers allows me to try hard in spite of my finger injuries!

Climbing that same day (Saturday): David warming up on the "No P"-- unknown stem problem that should be much longer. ("No P" visible in chalk, in David's shadow.)

Alex sending Hauck a Loogie (V3) during our warmup session at the top of The Sads.

Steve trying Molly (V6). We have to go back and send this!

Nature Liesel and her stick brush.

Cool formations at The Sads.

Looking down the canyon of The Sads; view of Eastern Sierras in background.

David sending French Press (V6)...

... (sending again. Sent three times?)

...and the weather finally got so bad (Sat night/ Sun morning, March19/20) that we finally caved: packed up the tent at 4:30 am in blowing rain/ snow, and headed into the Motel 6.

Attempt to dry out/ de-mud some of our stuff.

We're really on vacation now: breakfast at Denny's, including an order of all-you-can-eat pancakes.

A trip back up to the table lands to retrieve some of our last goods left in the storm

What's next?

Weather looks great again, starting on Tuesday. Still in the hotel tonight, and hoping for climbable weather in The Sads tomorrow... have quite a few problems to wrap up there!

Below are some videos from friend, Steve Marcil:

Me doing The Sheephearder (?, V2)

Issues in the morning after a windy, sleepless night.

The final kicker-outer (of the Milks)- time to move down to The Tablelands.

Joe's Valley: Take One AKA "The Shut Down"

Last weekend, we did season-first trip to Joe's Valley. For a lot of reasons, the climbing smashed us- so we retreated to Salt Lake City to rest for as many days as possible before our upcoming Bishop trip. Anyway. Here are some photos. (More next time!)

Coal Mines near New Joe's.

(There is almost no climbing in this movie, but there's some pretty sweet driving and car dancing.)

Moe's Valley, Part Deux

Another long weekend meant it was time to head south again to Moe's Valley for three days of climbing and one rest day of hiking around.

Me climbing Is Rail (V6).

Is Rail from Christine Balaz on Vimeo.

Video of me not sending Is Rail. (I did send it later.)

Coffee and food in the morning.

Walking my way to Health.

Rest day exploration up by the Power Lines. (More walking to health.)

Warming up at the Device Igniter Boulder.

...leaving just in time.

American binge.

Me trying unnamed "h" (v8) on the TeePee Boulder.

Doing the left variation of this roof problem, TeePee Boulder.

Traversing around the Monkey Boy Boulder on the last day

Untitled from Christine Balaz on Vimeo.

Steve doing her job.