More beautiful photos from AK. I have a few more that I am working up right now. But I am putting a bit more English into these. Enjoy for now.

Oh yea, the weather here is nasty yet again. I sure hope the rainy season has not started yet.

Alaska, Alaska. What a beautiful place. So pure. I will write more later. Photos just for now.

Yes I am talking about Alaska. We are going to Anchorage on Saturday and will be staying for a week. I have never been to Alaska, so I am looking forward to this trip very much. Star has more training on the military base there and Gavin and I are planning on checking out the surrounding mountains. I am aware that this time of the year there are many hungry bears out, so GnE will not be venturing out too far by ourselves.

That said I have very lose plans to take some photos on the water and in Anchorage. I know of a few climbing areas that are on my list to visit too. Gavin and I are meeting Star's grandparents for the first time next week. Long over due. I have heard so much about them I can not wait to meet them.

This should be a great trip and I hope I am able to take some nice pictures. We will see. Here are some random pics from the last month. Enjoy and My next post should be from Alaska and hopefully drinking an IPA!!!!


Go Climb Something!!!

Joyama today was great. We went to Wild Boar Gorge. WBG is a steep sport climbing area that must be visited by all climbers in Japan that climb in the 11+ to 14a range. A very nice area with some nice history. Jack Nakane, Yuji Hirayama, and Dai Koyamada, to name a few, all have FAs here.

Hiroko and I started with Jack's 12b, Child's Play. The route is very fun and all of the moves require your attention. If you are tall like me(for Japanese standards) the moves are not tough until you reach the last bolt. The small crimp and terrible pinches had our attention for sure. I think I can send it, but I will have to work out the top moves. Hit Chan is in the same boat.

Shuji's project is a 13d through an overhanging face that has it all. One jug, several crimps, and at least seven slopers that are just not enough. Shuji one hung today, and I know he will send soon. He looks very strong on all of the moves.

I climbed another classic, Gigolo 11b/c. This route really reminded me of climbing back home in the Little River Canyon. An overhung line about 70 feet long. The rock is no where near as good, but it is very close to sandstone. There are no jugs on this one. The line is chalked full of sloper ledges and OK sidepulls. Gigolo is well protected and I will redpoint next time I go.

On this trip I set up a couple of flashes for more practice. I think that this round was far better than the last and infinitely better than the time before that. I played around a bit with my f stop and ISO but tried to keep my shutter around 125 due to the action/climbing. I still have several that are a bit blurry, but overall I am very pleased. I hope that as I am posting photos that you can notice improvement in the composition or at least in the picture quality.

I will be taking a couple of days to rest but i think that a new area is in the works for this week. Till next time.....


Go Climb Something!!!!

Here are some photos from today's visit to the new area. Hiroko and Shuji came out from Tokyo to check this place out. They really like it. What a fun place to climb.

Wow, so much has happened since Gavin and I came back to Japan. The weather is crisp and feels very clean now that spring is here. Gavin and I have gone climbing almost everyday since our return. We have mostly been going sport climbing lately, so I am happy to report that my endurance has improved rather nicely in the last couple of weeks.

Several months ago I was doing some research and decided that my Nikon D5000 was not up for the tasks at hand anymore. I was not seeing the picture quality and video quality that I wanted. So I bought a Canon 5D Mark II with the 24-104mm f/4 pro lens. I have only had the camera for about five days and I can already see the difference that this sensor is making. The sensor is twice as large as the D5000 sensor. Not to mention that it seems that Canon has really "got it" in terms of color awarness. Many photos and videos to come.

The Walkers and Team G went on our first family camping trip this past weekend. I took everyone to Mizugaki yama for some fric-tastic bouldering and climbing. There was a chance of rain, but we decided to go anyway. As it turned out, it rained all day Saturday. But we made the best of it. Saturday we went for a hike and I showed everyone one of the many areas here that Jack and I are developing. Totally rad here!!!! We played cards and went to the onsen for an very relaxing soak and dinner.

Saturday night the skies cleared and Sunday morning was glorious. Blue skies and sun. The granite at Mizugaki dries very fast. So by the time that we made it to the area I picked out, several of the problems were dry. On Thursday the previous week I established a very fun tough V3 on a 25 foot block and though that this would make a nice boulder to start on. It turned out to be very tough for the group, but everyone seemed to enjoy the whole experience.

On Monday Team G went into Tokyo for some good old sight seeing. We went to Jack's shop Calafate. Jack took us to a fantastic ramen restaurant. I really love ramen. In Japan ramen is the most popular noodle. When you go to a ramen shop it is more than just the ramen and soup that you are there for. It's the atmosphere. The cook right in front of you making your bowl of ramen and the continuous slurping all around you is priceless. In the states ramen is not treated the same way. I will sure miss the wonderful ramen when we move back home.

After an oishii (delicious) lunch, Team G headed to Shinjuku for some sightseeing. We journeyed to the top of the Japan Metro building for a free 360 degree view of Tokyo. It was so clear that we were able to see Fuji yama. We walked around Shinjuku and headed to a very nice IPA bar. After five glasses of tasty IPA we hopped on the train and headed west. A sweet weekend all-in-all.

Today I went to on of our closest climbing areas the Towers. I was able to climb 6 routes. A couple 10a's and 10c's, an 11a, and a 11b. Fun day. I will post pictures from today tomorrow. Now I must get to bed, I am super tired. Tomorrow I am headed to boulder at Mitake.

To catch everyone up, the last month has been a bit turbulent to say the least. Of course the catalyst for this was the earthquake and horrific tsunami on March 11th.

It so happened that on this day Star, Gavin and I were in the Yokohama area at a MontBell store. In the past three weeks I have described the EQ to several people, but I am not sure if I have given my full impression. I have to say that because we ran outside and I was not near any man made torpedoes, I was not scared for my safety. It was exhilarating to be honest. As a climber, terra firma is something that you always expect to be just that. When the ground you walk on everyday starts to move like the ocean, you start to see things a bit differently.

I could not believe the strength of the forces at play that day. I imagine that someone who witnesses an avalanche, tornado, volcano, or some other force of nature first hand feels the same way. When everything stopped, after the two rather large aftershocks, people started to disburse.
There are a multitude of city speaker systems all over Japan to communicate emergency information to the public asap. A voice came over the national system to announce that an earthquake of 6.0 struck north of Tokyo and for everyone to go home.

We do not own a television so we went to a friends house and saw that a devastating EQ had taken place. It was surreal. Now I have to admit, this was my first large EQ, so I did not even fathom that something like this could even take place. Over the next week everyone I came in contact with was very concerned with the continuous EQs that were and are happening at least twice a day. Then you throw the nuclear power plants into the mix and as parents with an infant we decided that it might be best for the little guy and I to go visit the states for a "vacation". Star was scheduled to participate in some training in San Antonio in two weeks so we figured that at the longest we would see her then. So Star and I made the very tough decision for Gavin and I to leave while she was still on orders to stay on base. Gavin and I left Yokota Air Base on March 17th.

We took a military standby flight to Seattle and met up with Star's parents. Gavin and I stayed with them and friends for two weeks. These were two of the toughest weeks I have been through in my life. I do not mean that taking care of Gavin solo was what did it. Rod, Robin, Sean, Michelle, and my parent's help can not be thanked enough. It was being without my wonderful wife. It was worrying about her everyday because of the lack of information or maybe just the unknown in terms of the nuclear plant. I love my wife dearly and being in that situation really made me think about what it would be like to have her taken from us. It was terrible to say the least. Aside from not knowing exactly what was happening in Japan I didn't know when I would see my wife again.

My wife is in the military and she literally belongs to them. She has to have permission the go more than three hours from base on a normal work day. So when there is a natural disaster near base, well let's just say she was not going anywhere anytime soon. So during this period the military was changing there minds several times a day about what exactly to do with the personnel and civilians on base. In the morning it was she was not going to be going to her training in San Antonio and by lunch she was being told that they were setting up a staging area to prepare for iodine tablet distribution. And by dinner she was told to go home and pack a bag because she was probably going to be sent to Okinawa until things"blew over".

In the end, she was sent to her training in SA and we were finally able to reunite after two weeks of uncertainty. I met up with my parents in Austin, where Star and I had planned to go before the training in SA. On Saturday, just over two weeks from the last time I saw Star, we headed to the airport to pick her up. It was a wonderful moment. I hugged my wife and Gavin nuzzled his mother at first touch. We spent the next week catching up and promising each other that we were not going to do that again to our family. During the week Star went to her training during the day and Gavin and I went on adventures. We went to the Alamo. We drove due west from SA to the Pecos river to see the fabled limestone cliffs towering on either side. We went to Enchanted rock and back to Austin. Our nights were spent together as a family eating, laughing, and loving each other. These times will never pass from my mind. I will hold them dear to me always.

We landed back in Japan on the next Sunday, April 10th. I will say it sure was nice to be back home. It is interesting that it took being sent away and put in a state of uncertainty, fear, and angst to realize what the word home really means. Home is, for me, wherever my wife and son are.

Thanks again to our family, friends and even Mountain Khakis for checking up on us while this was going on. It really shows how much you care.

For anyone that reads this and would like to help the thousands of Japanese people affected by this terrible disaster, here is a link.

I love my son dearly.

We made it back safely home. It is very nice to be home. I did not realize how much stress I was under until I laid in bed last night. It was such a relief to lay with Gavin and Star. Very peaceful.

On Thursday I drove down to the Lake Amistad area of the Pecos River. What an amazing sight. The 100+ foot limestone walls were beyond impressive. I have to say, I was VERY impressed with the quality and length of the stone here. The Limestone is endless. It was hot in the sun, but all the routes that I'm aware of are on the shady side of the river. It was a bit windy which would have made for fantastic climbing conditions. But as I was with Gavin so there was no climbing that day. I hiked around a bit to check out the lines. Very nice.

On Friday we went to Enchanted Rock north of Fredricksburg. It is worth mentioning that I had the second best burger in my twenty-nine years in this quaint, cozy town. Mahaley's Cafe has an amazing 1/2 lb. cheddar cheese burger with avocado, grilled onions, tomatoes, pickles, mayo and an amazing toasted bun. If you ever go there you MUST eat this burger. Star had the fish tacos, they were tasty too. E-Rock took me by surprise too. I have to say that I was not expecting so many and such large boulders. I was impressed with the quality of the granite here. The temperature was quite hot so we did not stay very long. It would not be the end of the world to live in San Antonio if Star were stationed there. There are some very nice climbing areas within a short drive.

We left for Japan on Saturday. After more than 14 hours of travel we made it to Narita to find Jensen there to take us home. We arrived home just in time to catch the peak of Sakura season. What a beautiful time of year. It sure is nice to be home.